Digital Desk: A report released by the Ministry of Environment stated that the Northeast states have lost a total forest cover of 1,020 square kilometers in the last two years.
The India State of Forests Report (ISFR) 2021 revealed that the northeastern states have a total forest cover of 1,69,521 square kms, out of their total geographical area of 2,62,179 sq kms, which is 7.98 percent of the country’s geographical area.
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The northeast region covers a total of 23.75 percent of the total forest cover of India.
The report also highlights state wise forest decrease, with Arunachal Pradesh losing a maximum cover of 257 sq kms, Meghalaya losing 249 sq kms, Nagaland 235 sq kms, Mizoram 186 sq kms, Assam 15 sq kms, Tripura 4 sq kms and Sikkim losing square kms of forest area in the last two years.
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The Northeast region is mainly characterized by jhum cultivation, where a particular forest area is burnt and converted into an agricultural farm land. The patch of land is then allowed to recover or is left fallow for a long time, and this activity is repeated after certain years.
These kind of agricultural practices, then leads to fluctuations in forest cover and thus losing of productive forest area, the biennial report suggested.
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