Forest Cover

Government has set out a target of increasing the forest cover to 33% of the geographical area of the country. T.R. Baalu put special focus on this programme. Under his regime, with the introduction of JFM and FDAs, forest cover in the country increased to 20.55% in 2001 from 19.39% in 1999. The increase is 1.16% or 38245 sq. km. in absolute terms. In addition, tree cover was assessed for the first time as part of the forest cover during Baalu’s regime only, which was estimated at 2.48% (81472 sq. km) of the geographical area of the country. Thus, the net increase in the forest cover as per 2001 forest survey report was 3.64 % or 1,19,717 sq. km.