A Brief Overview of Forestry Scenario DNH
As per the Champion & Seth Classification of Forest Types (1968), the forests in Dadra & Nagar Haveli belong to two Type Groups i.e Tropical Moist Deciduous Forests and Tropical Dry Deciduous Forests, which are further divided into four Forest Types. The tribal population of the union territory mainly depends on forests for their requirements of fuel wood, fodder, small timber and livelihood. The main tribes are Dhodia, Kokna and Varli with small groups of Koli, Kathodi, Naika and Dubla scattered over the territory. Recorded Forest Area (RFA) in the Union Territory is 204 sq km of which 199 sq km is Reserved Forest and 5 sq km is Protected Forest. In Dadra & Nagar Haveli, during the period 1st January 2015 to 5th February 2019, a total of 5.40 hectares of forest land was diverted for various non-forestry purposes under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 (MoEF&CC, 2019). The Protected Area network in the UT has one Wildlife Sanctuary which covers 18.77% of geographical area of the Union Territory. 11.33.2 Forest Cover Based on the interpretation of IRS Resourcesat-2 LISS III satellite data of the period Oct 2017, the Forest Cover in the UT is 207.16 sq km which is 42.19% of the UT's geographical area. In terms of forest canopy density classes, the UT has 79.93 sq km under Moderately Dense Forest (MDF) and 127.23 sq km under Open Forest (OF). Forest Cover in the UT has increased by 0.16 sq km as compared to the previous assessment reported in ISFR 2017.