Introduction

Uttar Pradesh has a geographic area of 29.44 million ha which is about 9% of the land area of the country. It lies between lat. 23º 52' and 31º 28' N and long. 77º 5' and 84º 38' E. The state can be divided into three physiographic regions viz. the northern mountains of Himalaya, the southern hills and plateau and the vast alluvial Gangetic plains between the two. The state is fed by five major rivers namely the Ganga, the Yamuna, the Ramganga, the Gomati and the Ghaghra which drain into the Bay of Bengal. Land use pattern of the state is given in Table 3.26.a. 
 

The state has a tropical climate except in the Himalayas which has a temperate climate. The average annual rainfall and mean temperature ranges between 1,000 to 1,200 mm and 22.5ºC to 25ºC respectively. 
 

It is the most populous state supporting 16.44% of country’s population. The total population is 139.11 million (1991 census) of which 80.16% is rural and 19.84% is urban. Population density is 443 persons per sq.km. The Scheduled Tribes constitute 0.21% of the total population. Total livestock population is 64.80 million (1992 livestock census). 
 

Land use 
 

SOURCE : LAND USE STATISTICS AT A GLANCE 1996-97, MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, GOI, 2000 
 

Forest Resources   

  
The recorded forest area of the state is 5.17 million ha which constitutes 17.55% of its geographic area. By legal status, Reserved Forest constitute 70.51%, Protected Forest 2.90% and Unclassed Forest 26.59%. 

There are seven forest types, viz. Tropical Moist Deciduous, Tropical Dry Deciduous, Tropical Thorn, Sub-Tropical Pine, Himalayan Moist Temperate, Himalayan Dry Temperate, and Sub-alpine and Alpine Forests. Conifers and Sal are the important forest formations of the state. Forests are distributed largely in the northern and partly in the southern parts of the state. The central part is devoid of forest vegetation as it is mainly under agriculture. 

Protected Areas   
  
There are 7 National Parks and 29 Wildlife Sanctuaries, covering an area of 1.30 million ha which constitutes 4.42% of the geographic area. The two famous tiger reserves; the Corbett (the oldest in the country) and Dudhwa are located in the state. Nanda Devi is one of the 11 Biosphere Reserves of the country. Nanda Devi National Park is also one of the five World Heritage sites in the country. 

Forests in Villages   
  
There are 112,803 villages in the state of which 23,900 have forests as a land use. In these villages about 3.37 million ha is classified as forest. The total population of these villages is 23.95 million. The villages having less than 100 ha, between 100-500 ha and more than 500 ha forest in each village constitute 90%, 8 % and 2% of the total villages respectively. Table 3.26.b provides a classified account on forest area and population.

Forests as land use in villages 

Joint Forest Management 

Local communities had been traditionally managing the forests in the hills. The notification of Joint Forest Management was issued in 1997. At present 197 Village Forest Committees are managing 34,589 ha forest area under Joint Forest Management programme. 
 

The areas to be taken up for JFM include Village and Panchayat forests. Of the total income from the forest produce, 50% shall be distributed among the members of the village communities and the remaining 50% shall be spent on the community works. 
 

Forest Plantations 

  
Plantations started in the ravines of the Yamuna and the Chambal in 1884 which subsequently got extended to other areas. Besides plantations for ravine reclamation and soil conservation, industrial plantations for producing matchwood, pulpwood and timber were also undertaken. Forest Development Corporation (FDC ) was created in 1974 to undertake plantation activity through financial support from different financial institutions. Plantation activity got accelerated after the launching of social forestry programme. The important plantation programmes include industrial and pulpwood plantation, economic plantation, rural fuelwood plantation, fuel and fodder plantation, energy plantation etc. A total of 4.18 million ha has been planted between 1951 and 1999. Details of plantations are furnished in Tables 3.26.c and 3.26.d.
 

Forest plantations by all agencies

SOURCE: NAEB, MOEF, 1999 
  
  
Species-wise plantations by Forest Department upto 1998

SOURCE: UTTAR PRADESH FOREST DEPARTMENT 

Forest Cover 
  
The forest cover of the state, based on satellite data of October-December 1996, is 34,016 sq.km. which constitutes 11.55% of the geographic area. Dense and open forests account for 22,902 sq.km. and 11,114 sq.km, respectively. The forest cover of the state is shown in Fig 3.25. There has been a net increase of 22 sq.km. in the forest cover in the present assessment as compared to 1997 assessment. The difference between the data periods of the two assessments is 2 years.

The change matrix, given in Table 3.26.e, reveals that there has been an overall decrease of 56 sq. km. of dense forest. This is the result of degradation of 100 sq. km. of dense forest to open forest and 4 sq. km. to non forest which is partly offset by conversion of 39 sq.km. of open forest and 9 sq.km. of non-forest to dense forest.
 

The increase of 78 sq. km. of open forest is on account of conversion of 100 sq. km. of dense forest, 3 sq. km. of scrub and 50 sq. km. of non forest to open forest. The increase is also associated with conversion of 39 sq.km., 21 sq.km. and 15 sq.km. of open forest to dense forest, scrub and non-forest, respectively.


Forest cover change matrix(sq.km.)
 

There are 83 districts in the state, but boundaries of only 62 districts, excluding newly created ones are incorporated in the SOI map. The extent of dense and open forests and scrub in respect to these districts, along with the changes compared to 1997 assessment, are given in Table 3.26.f.
 

District-wise forest cover(sq.km)

 

The increase in the forest cover have been recorded in the districts of Hardoi, Kheri, Pithoragarh, Saharanpur etc. The increase is on account of the plantations taken 4-5 years earlier and also due to effective protection measures. The decrease in forest cover has been observed in the districts of Banda, Jhansi, Mirzapur, Sonbhadra etc. which is largely on account of biotic pressure. 

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Source: www.webindia123.com/uttar/land/distri.htm

Districts