Forestry in India is a significant rural industry and a major environmental resource. India is one of the ten most forest-rich countries of the world. Together, India and 9 other countries account for 67 percent of the total forest area of the world.Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010, FAO Forestry Paper 163, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2011), , page 12-13 India's forest cover grew at 0.20% annually over 1990–2000,Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010, FAO Forestry Paper 163, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2011), , page 21 and has grown at the rate of 0.7% per year over 2000–2010, after decades where forest degradation was a matter of serious concern.
As of 2010, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates India's forest cover to be about 68 million hectares, or 22% of the country's areaGlobal Forest Resources Assessment 2010, FAO Forestry Paper 163, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2011), , Annex 3, Table 2India State of Forest Report 2011, Forest Survey of India (2011), pages 4-5, Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India. The 2013 Forest Survey of India states its forest cover increased to 69.8 million hectares by 2012, per satellite measurements; this represents an increase of 5,871 square kilometers of forest cover in 2 years.State of Forest Report 2013 Ministry of Forests and Environment, Govt of India (2014) However, the gains were primarily in northern, central and southern Indian states, while northeastern states witnessed a net loss in forest cover over 2010 to 2012. In 2018, the total forest and tree cover in India increased to 24.39% or 8,02,088 km2. It increased further to 24.56 percent or 807,276 square kilometres in 2019.
Without a major effort to expand electricity generation and power plants, it is feared that the poor in India will continue to meet their energy needs through destruction of forests and wood consumption. India's dependence on fuel-wood and forestry products as a primary energy source is environmentally unsustainable and a primary cause of haze and air pollution.
In addition, India has a thriving non-wood forest products industry, which produces latex, gums, resins, essential oils, flavours, fragrances and aroma chemicals, incense sticks, handicrafts, thatching materials and medicinal plants. About 60% of non-wood forest products production is consumed locally. About 50% of the total revenue from the forestry industry in India is in non-wood forest products category.
History of forestry in India
Forestry in ancient and medieval India
The forest (vana/araṇya) played a major role in early Indian literature, usually presented in opposition to settled society. It was represented as the setting for royal hunts, and as the home of hermits, whose hermitages are depicted as idyllic societies in harmony with the natural environment.
Yajnavalkya Smriti written before the 5th century AD prohibited the cutting of trees and if a tree is cut punishments were prescribed for such acts. The Kautalya's Arthashastra written in the Mauryan Period, says about the need of forest administration. It also says how a forest is important for a successful kingdom.
Forestry in Colonial system In 1840, the British colonial administration promulgated an ordinance called Crown Land (Encroachment) Ordinance. This ordinance targeted forests in Britain's Asian colonies, and vested all forests, wastes, unoccupied and uncultivated lands to the crown. The Imperial Forest Department was established in India in 1864. The British state monopoly over Indian forests was first asserted through the Indian Forest Act of 1865. This law simply established the government's claims over forests. The British colonial government then passed the more comprehensive Forest Act of 1878, giving them control over all wastelands, which were defined to encompass all forests. Additionally, this Act gave the government the power to designate woods as reserved and protected.. In the former, all local rights were abolished while in the latter some existing rights were accepted as a privilege offered by the British government to the local people which can be taken away if necessary. These colonial laws brought the forests under the centralised sovereignty of the state. Sir Dietrich Brandis, the Inspector General of Forests in India from 1864 to 1883, is regarded as the father not only of scientific forestry in India, but as the "father of tropical forestry."Sharad Singh Negi, Sir Dietrich Brandis: father of tropical forestry, Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh, 1991
An FAO report claims it was believed in colonial times that the forest is a national resource which should be utilised for the interests of the government. Like coal and gold mines, it was believed that forests belonged to the state for exploitation. Forest areas became a source of revenue. For example, teak was extensively exploited by the British colonial government for ship construction, sal and pine in India for railway sleepers and so on. Forest contracts, such as that of biri pata (leaves of Diospyros melanoxylon), earned so much revenue that it was often used by the people involved in this business as a leverage for political power. These contracts also created forest zamindars (government recognised forest landowners).The government gave out these contracts without any restrictions in regard to conservation and these contractors began cutting trees indiscriminately as a result forest around train tracks disappeared. The British agenda regarding forest in India displaced the locals and natives of India who had ideas in cognizance with coexisting with the forest with industrial exploitation of forest and used it to create revenue for the British Crown.NCERT India and Contemperory world I The Forest Act of 1865 amended twice in 1878 and 1927 aimed at declaring the forests of India the property of the government ergo a resource of the British Crown. These actions of the British government took away the livelihood of the local people. The British government cleared vast lands of forests for cultivation of plantations similar to those in Africa and America, wherein abundant exploitation of people was prominent. This indiscriminate exploitation of Indian Forest was done under the banner of "scientific forestry". Additionally, as in Africa, some forests in India were earmarked by the government officials and the rulers with the sole purpose of using them for hunting and sport for the royalty and the colonial officials.
Forestry in India from 1947 to 1990 In 1952, the government nationalised the forests which were earlier with the zamindars. India also nationalised most of the forest wood industry and non-wood forest products industry. Over the years, many rules and regulations were introduced by India. In 1980, the Conservation Act was passed, which stipulated that the central permission is required to practice sustainable agro-forestry in a forest area. Violations or lack of permits was made a criminal offense. These nationalisation wave and laws intended to limit deforestation, conserve biodiversity, and save wildlife. However, the intent of these regulations was not matched by reality that followed. Neither investment aimed at sustainable forestry nor knowledge transfer followed once India had nationalised and heavily regulated forestry. Deforestation increased, biodiversity diminished and wildlife dwindled. India's rural population and impoverished families continued to ignore the laws passed in Delhi, and use the forests near them for sustenance.
India launched its National Forest Policy in 1988. This led to a programme named Joint Forest Management, which proposed that specific villages in association with the forest department will manage specific forest blocks. In particular, the protection of the forests would be the responsibility of the people. By 1992, seventeen states of India participated in Joint Forest Management, bringing about 2 million hectares of forests under protection. The effect of this initiative has been claimed to be positive. The growth rates have been slow through these years.
Post 1990 Forestry in India
Since 1991, India has reversed the deforestation trend. Specialists of the United Nations report India's forest as well as woodland cover has increased. A 2010 study by the Food and Agriculture Organisation ranks India amongst the 10 countries with the largest forest area coverage in the world (the other nine being Russian Federation, Brazil, Canada, United States of America, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Australia, Indonesia and Sudan). India is also one of the top 10 countries with the largest primary forest coverage in the world, according to this study.
From 1990 to 2000, FAO finds India was the fifth largest gainer in forest coverage in the world; while from 2000 to 2010, FAO considers India as the third largest gainer in forest coverage.
Some 500,000 square kilometres, about 17% of India's land area, were regarded as Forest Area in the early 1990s. In FY 1987, however, actual forest cover was 640,000 square kilometres. Some claim, that because more than 50% of this land was barren or bushland, the area under productive forest was actually less than 350,000 square kilometres, or approximately 10% of the country's land area.
India's 0.6% average annual rate of deforestation for agricultural and non-lumbering land uses in the decade beginning in 1981 was one of the lowest in the world and on a par with Brazil.
Forest types and assessment India is a large and diverse country. Its land area includes regions with some of the world's highest rainfall to very dry deserts, coast line to alpine regions, river deltas to tropical islands. The variety and distribution of forest vegetation is large: there are 600 species of hardwoods, including sal (Shorea robusta). India is one of the 17 mega biodiverse regions of the world.
Indian forests types include tropical evergreens, tropical deciduous, swamps, mangroves, sub-tropical, montane, scrub, sub-alpine and alpine forests. These forests support a variety of ecosystems with diverse flora and fauna.
Type of forest Area (in square kilometres) Percentage of total forestTropical Wet Evergreen Forests 51,249 8.0Tropical Semi Evergreen Forests 26,424 4.1Tropical Moist Deciduous Forests 2,36,794 37.0Littoral & Swamp Forests 4,046 0.6Tropical Dry Deciduous Forests 1,86,620 28.6Tropical Thorn Forests 16,491 2.6Tropical Dry Evergreen Forests 1,404 0.2Subtropical Broadleaved Hill Forests 2,781 0.4Subtropical Pine Forests 42,377 6.6Subtropical Dry evergreen Forests 12,538 2.5 Montane Wet Temperate Forests 23,365 3.6Himalayan Moist Temperate Forests 12,012 3.4Himalayan Dry Temperate Forests 3120.0Sub Alpine Forests 18,628 2.9Total (Forest Cover + Scrub)7,54,25298.26Grass land in different forest type groups (without forest cover) 13,329 1.74Grand Total 7,67,581 100.00
Forest cover measurement methods
Prior to the 1980s, India deployed a bureaucratic method to estimate forest coverage. A land was notified as covered under Indian Forest Act, and then officials deemed this land area as recorded forest even if it was devoid of vegetation. By this forest-in-name-only method, the total amount of recorded forest, per official Indian records, was 71.8 million hectares. Any comparison of forest coverage number of a year before 1987 for India, to current forest coverage in India, is thus meaningless; it is just bureaucratic record keeping, with no relation to reality or meaningful comparison.
In the 1980s, space satellites were deployed for remote sensing of real forest cover. Standards were introduced to classify India's forests into the following categories: