Classification of Forests in Kerala

Book on kurinji, the
flower of the blue mountains

Classification of Forests in Kerala
Type of Forests (Legal status: Reserved Forests)
Southern Tropical Wet Evergreen and Semi Evergreen
Southern Tropical Moist Deciduous
Southern Tropical Dry Deciduous
Montane Sub Tropical
Forest Plantations
Total

This excludes 1887 sq. km. of private forests vested in Government through legislation.

Disparities in Official Figures

Official figures of area under forests in Kerala varied and there were controversies over this. (Figures showed increase over years despite large scale encroachments and diversion for non-forestry purposes). The following are some of the figures of the Forest Department.

Administrative Report(1981): 11279.6 sq. km. (29  %) as in 1978-79

Reserve Records (1980)     : 10815.0 sq. km. (27.8%) as in 1978-79

Resource Survey (1973)     : 9400.00 sq. km. (24.2%) as in 1970.

The distribution of Reserved Forests by Vegetation Types
estimated from the Resource Survey

                 Sq. km.

Evergreen        1937

Semi-evergreen   1711

Moist decidous   2337

Dry decidous      136

Pure reeds        185

Montane
Temperate Shola    14

Grasslands         98

Plantations      1102

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Total            7520

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C. Chandrasekharan (1973) Forest Resources of Kerala.
A quantitative Assessment, Forest Dept., Trivandrum.
The area under shola excludes the associated grasslands. Latest estimate of shola (and) grasslands is about 70 sq. km.

Forest Survey report, 1991
The State of Forest Report, Forest Survey of India, 1991, says Kerala has 10292
sq. km of forest cover. This was determined through satellite studies.

In 1993, FSI reported a forest cover of 10336 sq. km. (These figures included the vested forests).

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