Table 9303 Land Land Use Types. ‘rea (in 000" ha) Percentage Total Geographic Area 885 Reporting area for land utilization 3.584 00 Forests 4 Ba Not avalabe fr land cultivation 1846 7126 Permanent pastures and other grazing lands 2 0.02 {and under mis. tree craps ane groves ® 056 Culturable wasteland 8 2 Fallow land other than current fallows 2 om Current fllows 39 402 Netarea sown 5234 60m Source: Land Use Sas, sya haere, GOK 207 ros 314t = = Dz — Forest Cover ‘Based on interpretation of satelite data pertaining to Oct-Dec 2015, the forest coverin the Stateis 16,847 sq km which 18.96% of the State's geographical area, In terms of forest canopy density asses, the state has 2,994 sq km under uery dense forest, 147 eq km under madaeately dence forect ant 19,706 sq km under open forest. “a Forest cover 10.96 %, of West Bengal 451% vacan 0.86% fe Cha showing forest aR ‘over of West beng (HI Non forest | Scrub Open Forest Mod. Dense Forest ML Very Dense Forest MD Forest Cover within and outside Recorded Forest Area ‘The recorded forest area of the states 11,879 sq km which is 13.38% ofits geographical area. The Reserved, Protected and Unclassed Forests are 8.38%, 31,76% and 886% respectively of recorded forest area, However, asthe digitize boundary of recorée forest. area from the State covers 13,625 sq sr, the analysis of forest cover within and outside ths creas depicted below, Forest Cover within Recorded Forest Area (Area in sa km) Very Dense Forest (VDF) 2603, Moderately Dense Forest (MOF) 2387 ‘Open Forest (OF) 2M Total 7338 Forest Cover outside Recorded Forest Area Very Dense Forest mI Moderately Dense Forest 760 ‘Open Forest 7562 Total ora Fst nd ee oe Sed ion res 315Total Forest Cover 16847 ‘ree Cover 286 Total Forest & Tree Cover 13908 Of State's Geographical area 71.39% OF inaias Forest & Tree Cover 23% Per capita Forest & Tee Cover ‘02 ha ie charts showing forest cover uithin and outside Forest cover within re RFA Forest cover outside RFA raa% 1H Open Forest I Mod. Dense Forest Ml Very Dense Forest eee ca Altitude Zone(m) Geographical aren oF MOF 500 26,650 2362 3.607 500-1000 307 wa Ec} 1000-2000 970 258 2m 2000-3000, 292 196 a6 3000 2 26 4 Total e852 2994 aur (@osed on 520, iit! Feveon Model et od ee et Sees oti eres 316S.No. Patch Size Range(sq km) No.of Patches __area(sq km) age = ws ee E> Carbon Stock ‘The total Carbon stock of forestsin the States. 163.20" milion tonnes (598.404 milion tonnes of CO, equivalent) which fs 2.30% of total forest carbon of the country. DP Decadal Change in water bodies within Forest Cover Brtent of water bodies Aninerease of 22 sq km within forest has been observed in the waterbody coverage within Forest a 2005 compared to 2015. The graphical and tabular comparisons depicted se 2015 below. Fst ee soe Sed ion ees 317co ree tte! ‘rea/Coverage 2005 2015 Brtent of water bodies (9 km) within Forest 2 108 1% of water bodies to Forest Cover Cy 082 es ao District Geo-graphical 2007 Assessment % OfGA Change* — Senub area, Very Dense Mod. Dense Open Total Forest Forest Forest Bankural 6882 zm 3 621 Twas a 2 Barddhaman’ 7024 88 31 we Sa 7 Birbhum’ 455 1 2 wa wr 389 1 " Dakshin Dinajpur’ 2218, ° 5 2 73m ° Daring” 38 a. cy 2s TD Haora 46? 0 30 2s aS 0 0 Hust 318) ° 4 ww 160508 a 0 Jalpaigur™ 6a 75, “2857588 2 8 och ainar 3307 0 a me 03 0 o Kolkata 185 0 ° 1 1 Ost 0 ° Maldah” 333 ° 28 ce ee ° Murshidabad’ 52h ° 3 Ee ° aia 3977 1 10 39 OD o ° North Twenty Four 4094 5 5 a a 7 ° Parganas Paschim Medinipur’ 9,368 239 aan 2s PurbaMedinipur 473 2 om Purulya” 6259 a sel 90h ThA 2 South Twenty 9960 986 ost 2792 28.03 5 1 Four Parganas’ Uttar Dinajpur 340 ° a Be o ° Grand totat 28752 2.996 4970516807198 ‘Change compares to updated 205 assessment. lass 2017 Assessment Total SFR 2015 Updated vor MOF oF ‘Scrub NF Very Dense Forest 2915 2 2 1 3 2908 Moderately Dense Forest 75 058 2 3 8 46 ‘Open Forest 3 @ 3m % 7 3707 Scrub o 1 6 ry @ 5 Non Forest 1 7 5, % 786 7788 Total SFR 2007 2,984 ana 9706 36 768 88,752 Net change a 2 E 3 me et od ee et Sees oti eres 318*, Figure 9.30: Fores Cover ‘map of west Bengal J HARIHAND zseno M3 ene rest I ocerstey Dene Foret Im Open aese tor Bodin wet teratoma Bandany eesti dounday Reasons for change detected in 2017 assessment Anetinereaseof21 sq kmhas been observed inthe State which ‘can be attributed to plantation activities mostly outside recorded Forest areas as wellas due to conservation of mangroves. 319