Forest Cover of Nagaland

Nature has been kind and has endowed Nagaland, one of the eastern most states under Indian union bordering Myanmar with diverse flora and fauna. The forests of the state is home to a number of tribal groups who are commonly called ‘Nagas’. These tribal groups in their well-demarcated territorial space continue to live in close association with nature and utilize a wide variety of forests resources for sustenance and livelihood. The forests broadly of tropical, sub-tropical, temperate etc, however, is being degraded over the years by excessive human intervention, making the surrounding ecosystem fragile and leaving a deep impact on the climatic condition. The environmental degradation, particularly in respect of the incessant erosion of ‘once rich forest cover’ is attributed to the tradition-bound practice of shifting cultivation by the tribals coupled with the rapid growth of population in the limited geographical area. Besides, logging and felling of trees for commercial and construction purposes, and for firewood are responsible for the depletion of the vegetation.The ‘Forest Cover’ which has been undertaken in a modest way is based on Remote Sensing Data and focuses on the mapping out of the status of forests of different categories in each of the eleven districts of Nagaland. The thinning of areas under forests as made out by the study needs to be arrested to maintain the ecological balance and regain the credibility of the state as a ‘green state’ once again.