India has lost a considerable forest area of 1.54 million hectares in the past 17 long years, according to the data released by Global Forest Watch.
The data collected between 2001 and 2017 shows that North Eastern states of Nagaland, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Manipur witnessed the largest tree loss and they contributed to 62 per cent of the total loss in the country. Among these states, Nagaland with 14 per cent of tree loss stood on top of the list. Tripura was the next with 11 per cent of tree loss. While Meghalaya and Mizoram witnessed 9.1 per cent of loss, Manipur showed 8.9 per cent loss in the graph.
As per the data, Andaman and Nicobar Islands have the largest forest cover with a 72 per cent of greenery. Though the Northern Eastern States have the largest deforestation, they also have the largest forest cover in the country. Coming next to Andaman and Nicobar islands is Mizoram that has 69 per cent of forest cover. Nagaland is the next in line with 64 per cent. While Manipur has 62 per cent of forest cover, Arunachal Pradesh has 60 per cent of tree area.
The Global Forest Watch is a monitoring platform that provides data on forest cover. It is an initiative of World Resources Institute having partnership with Google, University of Maryland and many other institutions.
