Rajasthan has second largest area under tree cover in the country

Why in news:

• Rajasthan has emerged as the second-largest area under tree cover in the country, as per the recently released forest survey report.
•  Maharashtra tops the list with 12,108 sqkm of tree cover.

Key Points:

• While tree cover is significant in Rajasthan, it is only 2.5% of the total geographical area of 3,42,239 sqkm.
• As per the head of forest force (HoFF), Rajasthan has always been in the top three when it comes to tree cover mainly due to two reasons. One is that historically, people of the state have always believed in conservation of trees. Secondly, there has been regular distribution of saplings for plantation which is not something that has been introduced recently but has been happening for decades.
• The National Forest Policy 1988 mandates that 33% of the geographical area of India should be under forest or tree cover.
• Forest Survey of India (FSI) has been assessing forest cover since 1987 and tree cover since 2001.
• For this purpose, isolated trees and small patches of trees which are less than 1 square-hectare in area and found outside Recorded Forest Areas (RFA) are considered for assessment.
• The total tree cover of the country has been estimated at 95,748 sqkm. There has been an increase of 721 sqkm in tree cover compared to the previous assessment of 2019.
• The standard error in the tree cover estimate at the national level has been assessed at 4.01%. The standard error at the state level varies from 2.23% to 16.49%.
• Tree Cover and Trees Outside Forest (TOF) are two different entities but are closely related.
• Trees Outside Forest (TOF) refers to all trees outside Recorded Forest Areas (RFA irrespective of size of the patch.
• Tree cover, on the other hand, means patches of trees as well as isolated trees outside RFA on areas less than one hectare. TOF of Rajasthan has been calculated at 12,828 sq km.