Although, the overall forest cover has increased in the country, there is a decline of about 765 sq km (0.45 per cent) in forest cover in northeastern region of the country.

Except Assam and Tripura, all states in the region show decrease in forest cover.

Mangrove cover has been separately reported in the ISFR 2019 and the total mangrove cover in the country is 4,975 sq km. An increase of 54 sq km in mangrove cover has been observed as compared to the previous assessment of 2017.

Top three states showing mangrove cover increase are Gujarat (37 sq km) followed by Maharashtra (16 sq km) and Odisha (8 sq km).

The extent of bamboo bearing area of the country has been estimated 16.00 million hectare. The total estimated green weight of bamboo culms is 278 million tonnes, showing an increase of 88 million tonnes as compared to ISFR 2017.

(With inputs from IANS)