Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: As per the Forest Survey of India (IFSR), 2021, Goa has a total mangrove cover of 27 sq km, which has gone up by 1 sq km over the last year.
As per the IFSR report, Goa’s mangrove cover has doubled since 2009.
“Goa has a total mangrove cover of 27 sq km, which has gone up by 1 sq km over the last one year. However, Goa does not have any mangrove patches categorized as ‘very dense’,” the IFSR report states.
Further, of the 27 sq km of mangroves, 21 sq km are ‘moderately dense’ mangroves, whereas 6 sq km are open mangroves.
The total mangrove cover in the country is 4,992 sq km. An increase of 17 sq Km in mangrove cover has been observed as compared to the previous assessment of 2019. The top three states showing mangrove cover increase are Odisha (8 sq km) followed by Maharashtra (4 sq km), and Karnataka (3 sq km).
The report also states that Goa has forest cover between 33 per cent to 75 per cent.
The country’s total forest and tree cover is 80.9 million hectares, which is 24.62 per cent of the country’s geographical area.
Compared to the assessment of 2019, there is an increase of 2,261 sq km in the total forest and tree cover of the country. Out of this, the increase in the forest cover has been observed as 1,540 sq km and that in tree cover is 721 sq km.
An increase in forest cover has been observed in the open forest, followed by a very dense forest. The top three states showing an increase in forest cover are Andhra Pradesh (647 sq km) followed by Telangana (632 sq km) and Odisha (537 sq km).
Area-wise, Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest cover in the country, followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra. In terms of forest cover as a percentage of total geographical area, the top five States are Mizoram (84.53%), Arunachal Pradesh (79.33%), Meghalaya (76.00%), Manipur (74.34%) and Nagaland (73.90%).
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