Hyderabad: Telangana’s forests, which are under the most pressure, have not fared well in the past few years. According to the India Forest Report (IFSR) 2023, only about 454 sq km of the state’s 27,688 sq km of reserved forest area has trees that can be considered old.
The remaining forests, which fall outside protected areas such as wildlife sanctuaries and national parks, are often filled with very young trees, indicating that old-growth forests have been lost over the years.
The IFSR has also highlighted that there is a practice of debarking the trees and making deep cuts in the trunks of the 13,480 sq km reserved forest.
Girdles are applied to ensure the death of the tree. When a tree dies, it is claimed by those who bind it as deadwood. It is illegal harvesting of wood from forests.
The report said that about 3,308 square kilometers of reserved forests have trees less than 10 cm in diameter, 8,608 square kilometers have slightly larger trees up to 20 cm in diameter, and 3,048 square kilometers have trees up to 30 cm in diameter.
Only 454 square kilometers of these forests have trees with a diameter greater than 30 cm indicating that most of the reserved forest areas are in the regeneration stage, and include pole crops or small timber trees.
A tree is considered a technically ‘proper’ tree only if its diameter is 30 cm or more, otherwise it is technically considered a sapling, said a senior forest department official.
The IFSR indicated that 91.67 percent of the reserve forest – 25,381 square kilometers – experiences biological pressure, which, the report says, is a result of grazing and browsing by animals, man-made fires, illegal logging and deforestation. Loping. Telangana has a policy of free grazing in reserved forests, and this is considered a contributing factor in the report’s 23,592 sq km of degraded forest.
Heavy Illegal Felling – More than 25 percent of the trees in the surveyed plots were brought down in 2,478 sq km, while 20,447 sq km of reserve forests were logged in various degrees including heavy felling. Branches were cut in 17,194 square kilometers of forest, and heavy looping occurred in 3,308 square kilometers, the report said.
Telangana, according to the IFSR, was the second in the country to lose 105.87 sq km of its forest reserve between 2021 and 2023 in overall reduction in forest area. Tripura lost the most at 116.90 sq km, while Andhra Pradesh’s total reserve forest loss was 83.47 sq km.
Infographic
Reserve Forest: 27,688 sq km
Biological pressure due to human activities: 25,381 sq km
Soil erosion: 23,592 sq km
Illegal logging: 20,447 sq km
Pasture: 23,476 sq km
Encirclement: 13,481 sq km
Cutting branches: 17,194 sq km
Regeneration (natural or through planting) insufficient or absent: 7,013 sq km
Significant reduction in canopy density: 2,630 sq km