What is the Value of Indian Forests?

The Value of India’s Forest Cover:

Over the course of a series of hearings in the Supreme Court on forest conservation, it decreed that those who cut forests must now pay for the loss of the intangible benefits of forests, in addition to the usual  payment for the loss of trees. The SC has assigned a range of  Net Present Values (NPV) to forests that will be sacrificed to developmental projects. The NPV assigned to  different  types of forests is as follows:

   

Forest  Type	NPV in Rs./Hectare
Scrub Forest Land	5.8 lakh
Open Forest Land	7.0 lakh
Dense Forest Land	9.2 lakh

If this NPV is applied to the standing forests of the different states of India, what would be the total value of the forest cover of India?  It sums up to  an amazing amount of Rs 59,20,190.2 crore! The state-wise NPV of forests is given below:

State	NPV of Forest	State	NPV of Forest
Andhra Pradesh	4,26,739.0	Mizoram	1,44,825.8
Arunachal  Pradesh	5,95,783.2	Nagaland	1,05,552.2
Assam	2,30,123.2	Orissa	4,36,940.0
Bihar	48,166.0	Punjab	20,605.8
Chhattisgarh	4,79,632.0	Rajasthan	1,57,042.4
Goa	18,592.0	Sikkim	29,589.0
Gujarat	1,39,111.0	Tamil Nadu	1,96,315.8
Haryana	15,294.2	Tripura	57,328.8
Himachal Pradesh	1,26,746.6	Uttar Pradesh	1,19,877.4
Jammu & Kashmir	1,92,629.2	Uttaranchal	2,12,885.0
Jarkhand	1,90,051.2	West  Bengal	89,676.4
Karnataka	3,35,301.2	A & N Islands	63,014.6
Kerala	1,35,230.2	Chandigarh	74.0
Madhya Pradesh	6,58,521.4	D & N Haveli	1,865.2
Maharashtra	4,35,935.4	Daman & Diu	46.4
Manipur	1,32,146.0	Delhi	883.8
Meghalaya	1,23,088.4	Lakshadweep	248.4

                                           TOTAL:    59,20,190.2 crore

                                           Source: Down to Earth, July 31,2005.