In the last 10 years, over 1,700 square kilometers of forest area have been lost due to development activities, according to a government statement released on Thursday. However, the government has also secured land for compensatory afforestation efforts.
In response to a supplementary question in the Rajya Sabha, Environment and Forest Minister Bhupendra Yadav stated that the country's overall forest cover has increased. He also mentioned that the government is working to further expand it.
He said while forest cover in five northeastern states Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya has reduced, states such as Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Karnataka and Jharkhand have seen their forest cover increase.
The minister stated, "In the last 10 years, 173,396 hectares of forest area (equivalent to 1,733 square kilometers) have been lost due to development activities. However, land has been acquired under compensatory afforestation. As a result, 21,761 square kilometers of forest area have been added, compensating for the loss."
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Narayan Das Gupta inquired whether the government has conducted any surveys or developed mechanisms to identify landslide-prone areas in advance to prevent loss of life.
Replying to this, the minister said the government comes out with a forest survey every two years. However, regarding incidents, there are subject matter of disaster management and state governments look into it, he said.