Forest Covers of West Bengal: A District-Wise Review

Forest cover mapping exercise for the state ofWest Bengal reflects the districtwise status of forests and its present trends and provides inputs for monitoring of forests and its restoration. District-wise statistics assessed from the biennial reports of the Forest Survey of India reveal the changes in the forest cover for the districts ofWest Bengal from time to time. Specifications of forest related information like forest types, and myths and history are included for all districts. District-wise forest cover change matrix reflects dwindling of the South Bengal's forest cover alarmingly from the eighties of the last century; yet a shift to joint forest conservation by making stakeholders in forestry initiatives and social forestry creation managed by the forest department has yielded the present results. Plantation under the social forestry scheme in almost all the districts of West Bengal has started showing results for the growing stocks. District-wise break-up revealed that South 24 Parganas, Uttar Dinajpur, Murshidabad and Howrah have recorded decrease in forest cover, while Bankura, Paschim Medinipur, Purulia and Birbhum have recorded a rise.There is a net increase of 54.51 sq km in the forest cover from the reported area in India State of Forest Report 2019 in comparison to the data available in the assessment report published by Forest Survey of India in 2017.