Editorial: Taproots to help restore India’s fading green cover

Importance of Forest

Covering nearly 30% land surface of the earth, forests around the globe provide a wide variety of ecosystem services and support countless and diverse species.
They also stabilise the climate, sequester carbon and regulate the water regime.

Forest degradation

Dependence on forests by nearly 18% of the global human population has put immense pressure on ecosystems
The State of the World’s Forests report 2020, says that since 1990, around 420 million hectares of forest have been lost through deforestation, conversion and land degradation.
Nearly 178 million hectares have decreased globally due to deforestation (19902020).
India lost 4.69 MHA of its forests for various land uses between 1951 to 1995.

Forest Restoration

Restoration is bringing back the degraded or deforested landscape to its original state by various interventions to enable them to deliver all the benefits.
Nearly 5.03% of Indian forests are under protection area (PA) management needing specific restoration strategies.
India joined the Bonn Challenge with a pledge to restore 21 MHA of degraded and deforested land which was later revised to 26 MHA to be restored by 2030.
The first ever country progress report under the Bonn Challenge submitted by India by bringing 9.8 million hectares since 2011 under restoration is an achievement