FORESTS IN KERALA

Forest cover of Kerala is largely spread over the Western Ghats which border the state. The Western Ghats represent one of the World's 18 hot spots of bio-diversity and is considered to be a repository of endemic, rare and endangered flora and fauna. In tune with the National Forest Policy, the Government of Kerala, developed a vision and strategy for the management of forest resources with an endeavor to reconcile the disparate demands on forests, to conserve the bio-diversity on the one hand and to meet the demands of the society on the other. The present forest management policy envisages technology improvement, response to the needs of people and development of partnership with the forest-dependent community.

Forest Cover :
The recorded forest area is 11,125.59 sq.kms. The percentage of forest cover in Kerala is 28.90 which is higher than the national coverage of 19.50. This includes 9157.10 sq. kms reserve forests, 214.31 sq.km proposed reserve and 1754.18 sq. km vested forest. Out of the total of 11,125 sq.km. of recorded forest area, the effective (actual) forest area in Kerala is only 9400 sq.km.

Sl.No.	Forest Type	Area	Percentage of the total area
1	Tropical Wet evergreen forests	3.480	37.02
2	Tropical Moist Deciduous Forests	4.100	43.62
3	Tropical Dry Deciduous Forests	0.094	1.00
4	Mountain Sub Tropical	0.188	2.00
5	Plantations	1.538	16.36
	Total	9.400	100.00

As per the assessment of Forest Survey of India (1999), the area under forest in the State is 10323 sq.km, which is higher than the effective forest cover as assessed by the Forest Department. Out of the total reported forest cover, 51 percent is in the southern districts and the remaining 49 percent is in the central and northern regions north of Eranakulam District. In the south, the reserve forests constitute the largest segment, while the proposed reserve and the vested forest account for the major share in the northern region. Idukki and Pathanamthitta Districts has a coverage of 58 percent of the total forest area while in Kannur District it is as low as 8 percent. The forest ecosystem in Kerala shows wide variation among the categories ranging from tropical evergreen to grass land. Tropical evergreen and tropical moist deciduous forest accounts for 78 percent. The coverage under plantation forestry is also substantial to the extent of 18 percent.

Out of the total forest area of 11.12 lakh ha, 1.88 lakh ha are degraded with crown density below 40 per cent. Afforestation of the degraded forest is one of the thrust areas for forestry development supported under various programmes which include compensatory afforestation, general forestry and World Bank-aided Kerala Forestry Project. Afforestation of degraded forests has been carried out in 68,532 hectares under various programmes during the Ninth Five Plan till 2000-2001.

Wild Life Sanctuaries :

The area covered by the two national parks, twelve wild life sanctuaries and one biosphere coming under the category of protected areas in Kerala works out to 2.32 lakh ha. It is 25 per cent of the total area under forests and 6 per cent of the total geographical area, which is higher than the national average of 5 per cent.

Wildlife Sanctuaries[WLS],National Parks[NP], Bird Sancturies[BS] and other Protected Areas of Kerala:

Sl.No.	Name of NP/WLS/BS	Area in sq.km	Year of formation
1	PeriyarWLS	777	1950
2	Neyyar WLS	128	1958
3	Peechi - Vazhani WLS	125	1958
4	Parambikulam WLS	285	1973
5	Wayanad WLS	344.44	1973
6	Eravikulam NP	97	1978
7	Idukki WLS	70	1976
8	Thattekkad BS	25	1983
9	Peppara WLS	53	1983
10	Chimmony WLS	85	1984
11	Chinnar WLS	90.44	1984
12	Shendurney WLS	100.32	1984
13	Aralam WLS	55	1984
14	Silent Valley NP	89.52	1984
15	Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve	1455	1986
16	Agasthyavanam Biological Park	23	1992
	Total Protected Area	2324.72