Bihar's Stats from India State of Forest Report (ISFR), 2021

■ Forest Cover of Bihar

• Geographical Area (GA): 94,163 sq km

• Very Dense Forest (VDF): 333.42 sq km

• Moderately Dense Forest (MDF): 3,285.83 sq km

• Open Forest (OF): 3,761.54 sq km

• Total Forest Cover: 7,380.79 sq km i.e 7.84% of GA (To remember- GCHO.GI & G.HD%)

Change in forest cover w.r.t ISFR 2019 = 75 sq km i.e. 1.03% increase; the highest increase was seen in OF= 69 sq km followed by MDF =6 sq km, while VDF remained the same.

• Scrub: 235.89 sq km

(Note: Scrub areas are not part of Forest Cover.)

S.No.	Class	Area (in sq Km)	Percentage of GA
1	VDF	333.42	0.35
2	MDF	3285.83	3.49
3	OF	3761.54	4.00
4	Total	7380.79	7.84
5	Scrub	235.89	0.25

■ Area under Forests

• Recorded Forest Area (RFA) as per the State's records is 7,442 sq km (i.e 7.90% of GA)

The Forest Cover inside and outside RFA has been analysed in different categories as follows:

Inside the RFA/GW Forest cover of MDF is the highest while outside the RFA/GW Forest cover of OF is highest.

■ Top districts in terms of Forest Cover area-wise:

Kaimur (Bhabua): 1051.56 sq km
West Champaran: 903.34 sq km
Rohtas: 669.91 sq km
Jamui: 661.17 sq km
Gaya: 602.55 sq km

■ Top districts in terms of Forest Cover as a percentage of geographical area:

Kaimur: 31.56%
Jamui: 21.34%
Nawada: 20.72%
Munger: 20.16%
West Champaran: 17.28%

■ Bottom districts in terms of Forest Cover area-wise:

Sheikhpura: 1.19 sq km
Arwal: 4.14 sq km
Jehanabad: 4.43 sq km
Buxar: 5.89 sq km
Siwan: 7.66 sq km

■ Bottom districts in terms of Forest Cover as a percentage of geographical area:

Sheikhpura: 0.17%
Buxar & Siwan: 0.35%
Gopalganj 0.42%
Jehanabad 0.48%
Arwal 0.65%

■ Maximum increase/decrease in Forest Cover: (Change w.r.t 2019 assessment)

Maximum increase:

Banka (16.29%)
Jamui: (13.22%)
Gaya: (12.24%)

Maximum decrease:

Kaimur (-4.83%)
Supaul: (-4.46%)
Rohtas: (-2.32)

■ Maximum area under:

• Very Dense Forest: West Champaran (249.34 sq km)

• Moderately Dense Forest: West Champaran (548.47 sq km)

• Open Forest: Kaimur (Bhabua) (531.73 sq km)

■ Forest Fire

• Highest number of forest fire incidents was reported in Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR-2) forest division.

■ Tree Cover

• Tree Cover: 2,341 sq km i.e. 2.49% of GA

• Tree cover of Bihar has increased by 338 sq km i.e 16.87% increase as compared to the previous assessment reported in ISFR 2019.

• Total Forest + Tree Cover = 9721.79 sq km i.e. 10.3% of GA

• Extent of Trees Outside Forest (TOF): 4,891 sq km

Trees outside Forests (TOF) refer to tree resources found outside the forests as defined in the Government records. Forest Cover outside the recorded forest area is derived using boundaries of RFA or Green Wash.

■ Dominant tree species in Trees Outside Forests (TOF)

■ Growing Stock in Forest:

Growing Stock is the volume of all living trees in a forested area. The total Growing Stock in Bihar is estimated at 71.56 million cum which comprises of 30.52 m cum Growing Stock in Recorded Forest Area (i.e. 0.70% of Country's Growing Stock inside forest area) and 41.04 m cum of Growing Stock in TOF ( i.e 2.31% of Country's Growing Stock outside recorded forest areas).

Both Growing Stock in RFA and in TOF has increased by 3.79 m cum and 0.58 m cum respectively, compared to 2019 assessment.

■ Carbon Stock in Forest:

The total carbon stock of forests in the State including the TOF patches which are more than 1 ha in size is 56.88 million tonnes (208.56 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent) which is 0.79% of total forest carbon of the country.

■ Growing Stock of Bamboo:

Bamboo bearing area and growing stock inside the RFA/ GW which include culms of 1 year age and above are given in the following table:

■ Major Invasive Species:

Major invasive species as assessed from forest inventory data are the following:

■ Extra Links:

• ISFR 2021

• ISFR- 2019 Bihar's stats

• Agriculture Sector in Bihar

■ References:

India State of Forest Report (ISFR), 2021

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