25 pc of country’s area under green cover: Minister

Posted on by Vividh Bharathi

New Delhi, Dec 21 (IANS) As compared to 2021, there is an increase of 1,445 sq km in the total forest and tree cover of the country with 25.17 per cent of the total geographical area being green, Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav said on Saturday.

As per the present assessment, the total forest and tree cover in the country is 8,27,357 sq km, which is 25.17 per cent of the geographical area of the country. The forest cover has an area of about 7,15,343 sq km (21.76 per cent) whereas the tree cover has an area of 1,12,014 sq km (3.41 per cent), he said.

Area wise top three states having the largest forest cover are Madhya Pradesh (77,073 sq km) followed by Arunachal Pradesh (65,882 sq km) and Chhattisgarh (55,812 sq km).

The minister also highlighted the near real-time fire alerts and forest fire services provided by FSI using advanced technology while releasing the ‘India State of Forest Report 2023 (ISFR 2023)’ at the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun.

The ISFR is brought out by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) on a biennial basis since 1987. The India State of Forest Report 2023 is the 18th such report in the series.

The report said the top four states showing maximum increase in forest and tree cover are Chhattisgarh (684 sq km) followed by Uttar Pradesh (559 sq km), Odisha (559 sq km) and Rajasthan (394 sq km). The top three states showing a maximum increase in forest cover are Mizoram (242 sq km) followed by Gujarat (180 sq km) and Odisha (152 sq km).

The total mangrove cover is 4,992 sq km in the country, said the report.

The FSI carries out an in-depth assessment of the forest and tree resources of the country based on the interpretation of Remote Sensing satellite data and field-based National Forest Inventory (NFI), and the results are published in the ISFR.

The report contains information on forest cover, tree cover, mangrove cover, growing stock, carbon stock in India’s forests, instances of forest fire and agroforestry.

To present a detailed picture of forest health at the country level, special thematic information on forest cover and important characteristics of forests have been reported in the ISFR.

–IANS

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However, the Chief Minister was not willing to draw any comparison of the new temple with the iconic one at Puri. “The one at Puri was built by the royal family. This one is totally a state government initiative,” the Chief Minister said.

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“Now the Indian Constitution does not allow government investment behind any religious project. This is an unconstitutional effort by the state government and we are against such efforts. The Puri temple will always remain in the hearts of millions of traditional Hindus as one of the four Dhams,” the Leader of the Opposition said.

Earlier in the day, the Chief Minister had clarified that since she is against any kind of political interference in the matter of the temple at Digha, she has refrained from being a member of the trustee board of the temple.

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–IANS

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Parbhani custodial death: Autopsy says Dalit man died of ‘shock following multiple injuries’ (Ld)

Parbhani (Maharashtra), Dec 16 (IANS) The provisional autopsy report of a Dalit man who died in judicial custody in Parbhani has stated that he succumbed to ‘shock following multiple injuries’, as the district observed a peaceful bandh to protest the incident here on Monday.

The autopsy of Somnath Vyankat Suryavanshi, 35, was conducted at the Government Medical College in Aurangabad this morning and his body was brought back to Parbhani for the last rites which were performed under tight police security this evening.

Many areas of Parbhani town and district observed a peaceful shutdown (bandh) on Monday after the alleged accused in last week’s violence — after a statue of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar was desecrated — died under mysterious circumstances in judicial custody on Sunday.

Earlier, the Parbhani Police claimed that the arrested accused Suryavanshi was admitted to a hospital following chest pains, but the provisional post-mortem report has raised fresh questions, and senior leaders of Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) plan to visit the district soon.

Rattled by the incident on the eve of the Maharashtra Legislature Session which got underway in Nagpur on Monday, the Parbhani Police deployed tight security measures to ensure a peaceful shutdown.

The state-level bandh call was given by Republican Sena President Anandraj Y. Ambedkar, his elder brother and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) President Prakash Y. Ambedkar, other Dalit parties/groups including Republican Party of India (A) President and Union Minister Ramdas Athawale, Republican Party of India (K) chief Sachin Kharat, Communist Party of India (M) leaders Ashok Dhawale and Uday Narkar, also supported.

However, Suryavanshi’s supporters, Dalit parties plus the MVA allies Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sushma Andhare, Nationalist Congress Party (SP)’s Dr Jitendra Awhad and Congress leaders have pointed fingers at the law enforcers alleging he was brutally thrashed by the police after he was picked up and succumbed to his grave injuries — as the provisional post-mortem report has said.

“The custodial death of Somnath Suryavanshi — a Bhim Sainik belonging to the Wadar community — in Parbhani is gut-wrenching, sickening and intolerable to say the least. What is more deplorable is that his death happened in judicial custody despite his bail application being approved,” said a grim Prakash Y. Ambedkar, who visited the town on Monday.

On December 10, an unidentified person vandalised a copy of the Constitution in the hands of Dr. Ambedkar’s statue outside Parbhani Railway Station, sparking tensions that degenerated into massive violence for the next couple of days.

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–IANS

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