The forest cover of Kerala’s Kozhikode district remains unchanged at 1,882 sq km, according to the latest forest statistics report of the Forest department.

While the district has the fourth largest forest cover in the State, it ranks first in terms of the proportion of forest cover to its total geographical area, with forests accounting for 80.26% of its land area.

The 2023-24 report, released recently, shows that the district has a total geographical area of 2,345 sq km. Of this, 142.16 sq km is classified as very dense forest, 415.56 sq km as moderately dense forest and 1,324.34 sq km as open forest. Scrub forests account for around 6.75 sq km.

While the total forest cover remained unchanged during 2022-23 and 2023-24, keeping Kozhikode in fourth place among the districts, the report notes that the forest cover increased by 8.87 sq km from 1873.19 sq km in 2021-22.

Idukki has largest cover

Among Kerala’s districts, Idukki has the largest forest cover at 3,211 sq km, followed by Malappuram (2,165 sq km) and Palakkad (2,047 sq km). In terms of the percentage of forest cover relative to total geographical area, Kozhikode is followed by Wayanad (74.8%), Idukki (73.71%), Thiruvananthapuram (63.7%), and Kannur (61.87%).

The report reveals that around 76 hectares (ha) of forest land in the Kozhikode Forest Division have been encroached upon. During the period, eight forest fire incidents were reported in the division, affecting a total of 10.33 ha.

An area of 23,353.50 ha. in the Kozhikode division comes under vested forests. Vested forests refer to private forests whose ownership and possession have been transferred to the government under Section 3 of the Kerala Private Forest (Vesting and Assignment) Act, 1971. These forests are legally recognised as reserved forests under Section 4 of the Act. During 2023-24, an area of 0.408 sq km was restored under vested forests across the State, the report notes.

The report further points out that Ecologically Fragile Lands (EFL) in the Kozhikode division cover around 1534.60 ha.

During the year, the department raised mangroves over one hectare under the Nagarvanam scheme and bamboo over 1.04 ha. under the Green India Mission. Kozhikode has a total mangrove cover of 120.15 ha. spread across 377 patches.