Definition of Forest, Forest cover, types of Zones, Forest types of India, Forest types of North East India, Forest cover Comparison of North eastern states of India in different time period.

1. Forest types and Forest Cover of
India with Special Reference to
North-East India
E-mail:Jintubania.k@gmail.com
By: Jintu Bania

2. Content
• Definition of Forest
• What is Forest Cover?
• Different zones of Indian Sub-continent
• Forest types of India
• Forest types of North-East India
• Forest Cover of India with special Reference to N.E
India.
• Year wise comparison of Forest cover of N.E India
• Reference

3. Definition
• Forest is a minimum area of land of 0.5-1.0 hectares with tree
crown cover (or equivalent stocking level) of more than 10-30
percent with the potential to reach the minimum height of 2-5
meter at maturity in situ (UNFCCC, 2001).
• Forest use natural forest and forest plantations. It is used to
refer to land with a tree canopy cover more than 10 percent and
the area should be more than 0.5 hectares. Forests are
determined by both presence of trees and absence of other
predominant land uses. The trees should be able to reach a
minimum height of 5 meter. Young stands that have not yet but
are expected to reach a crown density of 10 percent and tree
height of 5 m are included under forest, as are temporarily
unstocked areas (FAO, 2000a).

4. What is Forest Cover?
• Forest Cover refers to all lands more than
one hectare in area, with a tree canopy
density of more than 10 percent irrespective
of ownership and legal status. Such lands
may not necessarily be a recorded forest
area. It also includes orchards, bamboo and
palm.

5. Zones of Indian Sub-continent
• On the basis of temperature, Indian
subcontinent is divided into four major
zones (Champion and Seth, 1968).
– Tropical zone: Mean annual temperature zone
of more than 24˚C.
– Sub-tropical zone: Mean annual temperature
lies between 17 to 24˚C.
– Temperate zone: Temperature lies between 7 to
17˚C.
– Alpine zone: Under 7˚C.

6. Forest Types of India
• On the basis of Phenology, Biogeography, Elevation and Field data 14
types of forest has been classified in India (Reddy et al., 2015)-
– Tropical wet evergreen forest
– Tropical dry evergreen forest
– Sub-tropical broad leave hill forest
– Sub-tropical dry evergreen forest
– Montane wet temperate forest
– Tropical semi-evergreen forest
– Tropical moist deciduous forest
– Tropical dry deciduous forest
– Tropical thorn forest
– Sub-tropical pine forest
– Himalayan Moist temperate forest
– Himalayan dry temperate forest
– Littoral forest
– Swamp forest

7. Forest types of N.E. India
Sl. No Vegetation type States
1 Tropical Evergreen Forest Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Mizoram,
Tripura
2 Hollong Forest
(Dipterocarpus)
Arunachal Pradesh, Assam
3 Tropical Semi-evergreen
Forest
Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam,
Meghalaya, Mizoram
4 Moist Deciduous Forest Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam,
Meghalaya, Tripura
5 Reverain Forest Arunachal Pradesh
6 Hollock (Terminalia Sp.) Arunachal Pradesh
7 Sal (Soria robusta) Forest Sikkim, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura
8 Teak (Tectona grandis)
Plantation
Assam
9 Dry deciduous Forest Manipur
10 Sub-tropical evergreen I Arunachal, Meghalaya
11 Sub-tropical evergreen II Arunachal
12 Sub-tropical broad leaved
Forest
Mizoram
13 Broad leaved Hill Forest Sikkim
14 Mixed Pine Forest Meghalaya
15 Pine Forest Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam,
Meghalaya
16 Temperate broad leaved Arunachal
17 Mixed temperate forest Nagaland
18 Wet temperate forest Mizoram
19 Temperate coniferous forest Arunachal Pradesh
20 Fir Forest Arunachal Pradesh
21 Sub-alpine and
Rhododendron
Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh

8. Forest cover of India
• According to the latest report of ISFR (Indian State of
Forest Report) 25% of India’s land mass is under forest and
tree covers. The latest (2019) report of ISFR has shown an
increase of 5,188 sq. km. of Forest and Tree Cover across
the country compared to the ISFR, 2017. When ISFR, 2017
was released, total 8,021 sq. km. of forest area was
recorded compared to the data of ISFR, 2015.
• According to the 2019 report, the total forest cover of the
country is 712,249 square km (21.67 percent of India’s
total geographical area) slightly up from 708,273 sq. km
(21.54 percent) in 2017. The tree cover of the country is
95,027 sq. km (2.89 percent of the total area) again slightly
up from 93,815 sq. km. (2.85 percent) in 2017.

9. Forest cover of N.E. India
Serial
No.
State Total Area (Sq.
km.)
Forest Cover (Sq.
Km.)
Percent
(%)
1 Arunachal
Pradesh
83,743 66,688 79.63
2 Assam 78,438 28,327 36.11
3 Manipur 22,327 16,847 75.46
4 Meghalaya 22,429 17,119 76.33
5 Mizoram 21,081 18,006 85.41
6 Nagaland 16,579 12,486 75.31
7 Sikkim 7,096 3,342 47.10
8 Tripura 10,492 7,726 73.64
Total 262,185 170,541 65.05

10. Year wise comparison of Forest Cover
of N.E. India
0.00
10.00
20.00
30.00
40.00
50.00
60.00
70.00
80.00
90.00
100.00
TotalforestCover
North Eastern State
2013
2015
2017
2019

11. Result and Discussion
• India, a mega-diverse country, possesses a wide
range of climate and vegetation types along with a
varied topography.
• Indian sub-continent is divided into different zone
on the basis of their temperature like- Tropical, Sub-
tropical, Temperate and Alpine zone and in this
different zones different vegetation types are found.
For example- Tropical evergreen forest, Tropical
thorn forest, Littoral forest, swamp forest etc.
• On the basis of Phenology, Biogeography, Elevation
and Field data 14 types of forest has been classified
in India (Reddy et al., 2015)

12. Cont.
• According to latest report (2019) India’s
total forest cover is 21.67%, which slightly
up from 2017 report.
• But in case of North-East India except
Assam and Tripura the forest cover in other
states of N.E. India is drastically decreasing
year after year.
• In the year 2019, 0.29% of forest cover is
lose in entire North-Eastern state in
compare to the year 2017.

13. Cont.
• The loss of forest cover in N.E. India is
mainly due to construction of dams and
other developmental activities mainly in the
state of Arunachal Pradesh.
• shifting cultivation has traditionally been
intricately linked to the socio-cultural life of
tribal communities and the slash-and-burn
practice of agriculture is mainly responsible
for fluctuation in forest cover in this region.

14. Conclusion
• One simple method which can help in
increase in the forest cover, is plantation.
• The gain in increase of 221.51 square km in
the forest cover in Assam is mainly because
of plantations mostly outside forest areas.
• Like that wise in other parts of North
eastern states if plantation is done than
forest cover can increase.

15. Reference
• http://www.fao.org/3/Y4171E/Y4171E10.htm
• Reddy, C.S., Jha, C.S., Diwakar, P.G., Dadhwal, V.K. Nationwide
classification of forest types of India using remote sensing and
GIS. Environ Monit Assess (2015) 187: 777
• https://www.geospatialworld.net/article/forest-cover-and-
assessment-in-north-east-india-issues-and-policies/
• https://india.mongabay.com/2020/01/indias-forest-cover-is-
rising-but-northeast-and-tribals-lose/
• http://fsi.nic.in/
• https://data.gov.in/keywords/forest-and-tree-cover
• https://www.jagranjosh.com/general-knowledge/common-
plant-species-of-india-1440146954-1