Carbon sequestration potential of Indian forests

The forestry sector can not only sustain its carbon but also has the potent ial to absorb carbon from the atmosphere. India has maintained approximatel y 64 Mha of forest cover for the last decade. The rate of afforestation in India is one of the highest among the tropical countries, currently estimat ed to be 2 Mha per annum. The annual productivity has increased from 0.7 m( 3) per hactare in 1985 to 1.37 m(3) per hectare in 1995. Increase in annual productivity directly indicates an increase in forest biomass and hence hi gher carbon sequestration potential. The carbon pool for the Indian forests is estimated to be 2026.72 Mt for the year 1995. Estimates of annual carbo n uptake increment suggest that our forests and plantations have been able to remove at least 0.125 Gt of CO2 from the atmosphere in the year 1995. As suming that the present forest cover in India will sustain itself with a ma rginal annual increase by 0.5 Mha in area of plantations, we can expect our forests to continue to act as a net carbon sink in future.