Forests as Carbon Sink - the Indian Scenario

Forests playa significant role in global carbon cycle and due to their potential to capture and hold carbon, they are now considered an important climate change mitigation option. The Forest Survey of India (FSI) developed a methodology in 1995 to assess the above ground growing stock of the forested areas of the country for integrating remote sensing data (information based on satellite data as well as aerial photographs) with the field inventory data to assess above ground growing stock of forest at national level. This methodology has recently been used by FSI in collaboration with the Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun to assess growing stock, above ground woody biomass and the carbon content in it, for the year 1984 and 1994. Growing stock for the year 1994 is estimated to be 4340.0 million m³, while the above ground woody biomass and carbon were estimated to be 2395.4 million tonnes and 1083.8 million tonnes respectively. It is also observed that there has been a marginal increase in growing stock, biomass and carbon in forested areas in the country between the period 1984 and 1994. The work has been done as a part of the 'Land Use and Land Use Change&Forestry' component of India's Initial National Communication (NATCOM) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).