The total carbon stock in the state’s forests spread over 50,798 sq km is 452 million tonnes, which is the fourth highest in the country. According to the Forest Survey of India Report, 2021, this translates to 89 tonnes per hectare.
By 2030, Maharashtra will have 34,170 sq km of forest cover due to climate change with increasing degree of severity from high to severe due to climate change and the entire forest cover is projected to be a hotspot by 2050. Maharashtra has shown a 4% increase in mangrove cover, second only to Odisha, where the increase is 8%.
The report said that the increase in mangrove cover in Maharashtra is mainly due to natural regeneration. Significantly, mangrove cover has decreased by 1 sq km in the suburbs of Mumbai, as well as in Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg and Thane, but increased by 6 sq km in Raigad. The state has 324 sq km of mangrove cover (but no dense mangrove cover), about 90 sq km medium dense forest Covered and 234 sq km of open mangroves.
The state has 26,866 sq km of tree cover outside the reserve forest area, the highest in the country, followed by Odisha (24,474 sq km) and Karnataka (23,676 sq km). The Trees Outside Forest (TOF) had a measured spread of 12,108 sq km in 2021. This has increased by 1,302 sq km as compared to 2019. Maharashtra has the highest growing stock, followed by Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The highest number of neem and mango are found in rural areas and coconut and mango in urban areas. These are the most common species of trees planted outside forests.
The bamboo cover in the state has decreased by 1,882 sq km, which is the second biggest decrease after Madhya Pradesh. Cut bamboo clumps were found in 1,475 sq km. The total area under bamboo in the state is 1.35 million hectares.
There has been a reduction in the total forest cover in the tiger habitats. But the good news is that the Kanha to Navegaon-Nagjira-Tadoba-Indravati Tiger Corridor, which passes through Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, has the largest forest cover (2,012 sq km), followed by Pench-Satpura in Madhya Pradesh. Melghat and Maharashtra (1,196 sq km). The Kanha to Navegaon-Nagjira-Tadoba-Indravati Tiger Corridor has very dense forests, spread over 858 sq km, which is 43% of its total forest cover. It also has the highest area under moderately dense forest, which is 883 km, or 44% of its total forest cover. On the other hand, Pench-Satpura-Melghat has the highest area under open forest, spread over 392 sq km, which is 33% of its forest area.
The study shows that parts of western Maharashtra show patches that are prone to extreme or extreme fires. In Maharashtra, large, continuous and repeated fires were reported from Gadchiroli district between November 2020 and June 2021. The number of reported fire incidents was 10,577.
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