Forest Cover of North East India

The North eastern region of the country comprising eight states namely Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura are endowed with rich forest resources. The region which constitutes only 7.98 percent of the geographical area of the country, accounts for nearly one fourth of its forest cover. According to data made available by the India State of Forest Report 2015 the total forest cover of the region is 171,964 sq.km, which is 65.59% of its geographical area in comparison to the national forest cover of 21.34%.

Other highlights of the report with respect to the forest cover of N.E. India are as follows.

a. Of the 36 States/Union Territories of India, 15 States/UT’s have above 33% of their geographical area under forest cover. This includes all the eight States of N.E. India

b. Seven States and UT’s in India have more than 75% forest cover. These include five states from N.E.India including Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland. Tripura too comes close with 74.49% forest cover. Sikkim has 47.31% forest cover while Assam lies at the bottom with 35.22% forest cover.

c. The total forest cover of the country is 701,673 sq.km. N.E.India with forest cover of 171,964 sq.km thus accounts for 24.5% of the forest cover of the country.

d. Very dense, Moderately dense and Open forest in N.E. India constitute 14.81%, 43.85% and 41.31% of the total forest cover of the region.

State wise forest cover of the region as per India State of Forest Report 2015, is shown as follows

States	Geogra-phical Area	2015 Assessment				Percent Of G.A.
		VDF	MDF	OF	Total
Arunachal Pradesh	83,743	20,804	31,301	15,143	67,248	80.30
Assam	78,438	1,441	11,268	14,914	27,623	35.22
Manipur	22,327	727	5,925	10,342	16,994	76.11
Meghalaya	22,429	449	9,584	7,184	17,217	76.76
Mizoram	21,081	138	5,858	12,752	18,748	88.93
Nagaland	16,579	1,296	4,695	6,975	12,966	78.21
Sikkim	7,096	500	2,160	697	3,357	47.31
Tripura	10,486	113	4,609	3,089	7,811	74.49
Grand Total	262,179	25,468	75,400	71,096	171,964	65.59

Note:

VDF (Very dense Forest): All Lands with tree cover (Including mangrove cover) of canopy density of 70% and above

MDF (Moderately Dense forest): All lands with tree cover (Including mangrove cover) of canopy density between 40% and 70%

OF (Open forest): All lands with tree cover (Including mangrove cover) of canopy density between 10% and 40%