Forest cover not dwindling: Govt.

New Delhi, Dec 15 (UNI) The government today strongly discounted reports that the forest cover had been dwindling in a number of areas in the country, saying the last three biennial assessments of the Forest Survey of India (FSI) revealed facts to the contrary.

Environment and Forests Minister A. Raja told the Rajya Sabha that as per the FSI surveys, the forest cover in the country in 1999 was 637,293 sq km, and it went up to 675,538 sq km in 2001 and 678,333 sq km in 2003.

To bolster his contention, he said prior to the enactment of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, 25,000 hectares of forest land were being lost every year because of developmental activities. Now it had been considerably reduced, he added.

The minister also informed that unauthorised occupation on 1.5 lakh hectares of forest lands had also been vacated.

As per the 2003 assessment, Madhya Pradesh tops the country in having the largest forest cover of 76,429 sq km, followed by Arunachal Pradesh (68019 sq km), Chhattisgarh (55,998 sq km), Orissa (48,366 sq km) and Maharashtra (46,865 sq km).

Daman and Diu is at the bottom of the heap with mere 8 sq km of forest cover while Delhi has 170 sq km.

Replying to a supplementary, he said no mechanism for providing 'Forest Credit' to the forest areas or cover was available in the country.

However, the Environment and Forests Ministry had urged all the State and UT governments not to resort to eviction of forest dwellers, including tribals, other than ineligible encroachers, till a complete survey was carried out for identification of such people under the 1980 Act.

With regard to the problems arising out of converting 'Van Gram' (forest villages) into revenue villages, the minister said the Supreme Court had imposed a ban on dereservation of forests on sanctuaries in 1980.

''Consequently, the legal status of forest land cannot be changed,'' the minister said, adding that a total of 2690 villages had been affected by the court verdict.

''We have moved the apex court to vacate the ban. Also, once the Tribal Bill, already introduced in the Lok Sabha, receives parliamentary approval, all such problems will be over,'' he asserted.

He said a total of 52 forest-related projects, including 35 in Madhya Pradesh and 10 in Chhattisgarh, were pending with the ministry.

The minister, who was assisted by his deputy Namo Narayan Meena in replying to queries, said states had been advised to cosntitute state-level coordination committees under the chairmanship of Chief Secretaries for eliciting cooperation of all land-owning departments for contributing towards increase in forest and tree cover.

A multi-stake holder partnership (MSP) framework for afforestaion of degraded lands had also been mooted, he informed.

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