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New Features of SFR 2011 SFR 2011 has some new features, such as information pertaining to bamboo resources, carbon stock in India’s forests, production and consumption of wood, fuel wood and fodder. These are based on special studies carried out by FSI in the recent past. In addition, information on coral reefs and forest fire monitoring being carried out by FSI has also been provided.
The new features/additions are briefly described below:
i. Bamboo Resources:
Bamboo is an important non-wood forest resource found in forest as well as non-forest areas in the country. It is reported that there are 125 indigenous and 11 exotic species of bamboo belonging to 23 genera in India. As per the FAO report on world forest resources, India is the second richest country of the world after China in terms of bamboo genetic resources.
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The total bamboo bearing area of the country is estimated to be 13.96 million hectare. Arunachal Pradesh has maximum bamboo bearing area (1.6 m ha) followed by Madhya Pradesh (1.3 m ha), Maharashtra (1.1 m ha) and Odisha (1.05 m ha).
The total number of culms at national level has been estimated to be 23297 million. The corresponding estimated green weight of bamboo culms at national level is 169 million tonnes of which green sound bamboos contribute 73 per cent and dry sound bamboos contribute remaining 27 per cent.
In the TOF (trees outside forests) areas, total number of culms estimated at national level is 2127 million with an equivalent weight of 10.20 m tonnes. The physiographic zone of Eastern Plain contributes maximum number of culm (943 million), followed by North East Ranges 289 million culms and East Deccan physiographic zone which contributes 212 million culms.
ii. Carbon Stock in India’s Forests:
FSI is one of the institutions that estimate forest biomass and carbon stock change. In India’s Initial National Communication (INC) submitted to the UNFCCC in 2004, FSI estimated forest carbon of only woody growing stock. In 2010, FSI completed estimation of forest carbon stock and change between the two time periods, namely, 1994 and 2004 as part of the Second National Communication (SNC) to the UNFCCC. (Details are given in the table.)
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iii. Production and Consumption of Wood:
Following the recommendations of the Technical Advisory Committee, FSI carried out a detailed study on production and consumption of wood at the national level:
(i) The annual estimated production of wood from forests is estimated to be 3.175 million cubic metres.
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(ii) The annual potential production of wood from TOF is estimated to be 42.77 million cubic metres.
(iii) The annual estimated production of fuel wood from forest is estimated to be 1.23 million tonnes.
(iv)The potential production of fuel-wood from TOF is estimated to be 19.25 million tonnes.
(v) Total annual consumption of wood in household construction and furniture, industrial construction and furniture and agricultural implements is estimated to be 48.00 million cubic metres.
(vi) The total fodder consuming livestock dependent partially or completely on forest is 38.49 per cent. The adult cattle unit (ACU) completely dependent on forest is 22.63 per cent.
(vii) The total annual consumption of fuel-wood for the country is estimated to be 216.42 million tonnes out of which 58.75 million tonnes comes from forests, (viii) Of the total population using fuelwood, 23 per cent population is obtaining fuel-wood from forests.
iv. Forest Fire Monitoring:
FSI started the monitoring of forest fires since the year 2004 using data from web fire mapper. The coordinates of active fire locations from this site are projected on the forest cover map of India to select active forest fire locations lying within the forest cover. The information is then disseminated to the State Forest Departments. From 2009 onwards the information is being sent through SMS to the registered users.
At present, there is a time lag of 12 to 24 hrs in the reporting of these fires owing to late availability of this data. Efforts are on to reduce this time lag so as to provide information on near real-time basis. A total of 13,898 fire incidences were reported by FSI to different states in the year 2010-11.
v. Mapping of Coral Reefs Using Remote Sensing Data:
Often called rainforests of the sea, coral reefs form some of the most diverse ecosystems on earth. Coral reefs deliver ecosystem services to tourism, fisheries and shoreline protection. However, coral reefs are highly fragile ecosystems.
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They are under threat from climate change, ocean acidification, blast fishing, cyanide fishing for aquarium fish, overuse of reef resources and harmful land-use practices. Coral reef mapping in the four regions of the country was carried out by FSI in a project mode using LISS III data on a 1: 50,000 scale. Digital maps of coral reefs along Andaman and Nicobar Islands on a higher scale have been prepared by FSI using Quick Bird satellite data.
vi. National Forest Inventory:
The information on forest growing stock has always been considered as an important indicator of forest health and productivity. Periodic estimation of forest growing stock is essential to develop national policies and strategies for a sustainable use of the forest resources. These days when climate change issues have become important, the growing stock assessment is also used for estimation of carbon stored in the forests.
In SFR 2011, estimation of growing stock has been based on the forest cover, forest type and sample plots laid out during field inventory from 2002-2008. The total growing stock in the country both in forests and TOF is estimated to be 6047.15 million cubic metre of which forests contribute to 4498.73 million cubic metre and TOF accounts for 1548.42 million cubic metre. Among the states/Union territories, the maximum growing stock in forests is reported from Arunachal Pradesh (493 million cubic metre) followed by Uttarakhand (460 million cubic metre; and Chhattisgarh (334 million cubic metre).