The State Planning Commission has identified policy focus areas to improve the forest cover in Tamil Nadu after analysing 20 years of data.
It has been brought out by the Tamil Nadu State Land Use Research Board of the Commission.
The Nilgiris now tops the table with a loss of 226 sq. km between 2003 and 2011 of dense forests and 348 sq. km of moderately dense forests between 2011-2021.
The five - Chennai, Tiruvarur, Karur, Nagapattinam, and Perambalur districts accounts for only 1.89% of the State’s Forest cover.
Sivagangai district’s forest cover came down by 20.47% in the last two decades, followed by Villupuram (13.85%), and Kancheepuram (13.03%).
Dharmapuri has lost 409 sq. km of open forests.
The tree cover in the State from 2001 to 2021 to an extent of 1,630 sq. km.
The share of Tamil Nadu in the national mangrove cover is only 0.9%.
Tamil Nadu has recorded an increase in the mangrove cover from 23 sq. km in 2001 to 49 sq. km in 2017.
But the State had lost 4 sq. km of the mangroves between 2017 and 2021.