The Global Forest Watch (GFW) is released by World Resources Institute (WRI) which reveals that India has lost over 1.6 million hectare of tree cover between 2001 and 2018, about four times the geographical area of Goa.
GFW is an open source web application to monitor global forests in near real time.
Key Findings
In India, five north-eastern states — Nagaland, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Manipur — were responsible for over 50% of all tree cover loss in the same period.
The main reason for loss of tree cover in the north-eastern states is diversion of forest land and climate change.
The loss of tree cover contributed to 172 MT of carbon emissions in India during this period.
The analysis reveals the total tree cover which used to be 12% of the country’s geographical area in 2000 reduced to 8.9% in 2010.
World Resources Institute
WRI is a global research organization that spans more than 50 countries and focuses on six critical issues at the intersection of environment and development: climate, energy, food, forests, water, and cities and transport.
It was established in 1982. Headquartered in Washington, US.