Nepal's forest cover area increases by over 5 pct 44.74 percent

A lastest survey conducted by Nepal's government said that out of the total 141,718 square kilometres area of Nepal, forest takes 44.74 percent.

Another similar research organized in between 1997 to 1998, however, showed that there was only 39.6 percent of forest area in this Himalayan nation.

According to Nepal's national news agency RSS, the Department of Forest Research and Survey, under the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation, and National Forest Products Survey Project conducted jointly this five-year suvery in between 2010 to 2014.

This recently released report showed that Nepal's mid-hill area is greener than other regions while the lowest forest cover of 6.9 percent falls on the Tarai, a plain region in the southern Nepal where over half of whole population of the country lives there.

Keshab Raj Gautam, spokesperson of the department told media that succefful implementation of protection programs and massive migration from rural areas to urban areas are the main reasons behind the rapid growth rate.

For example, with a theme "One house one tree; one village one forest; one town several parks", Nepalese government announced 2014-2023 as the forest decade a few years ago to make this country greener.

At the same time, an increasing people has been migrating to urban areas from remote regions. As a result, more urban centres emerge. In 2015, the government declared 133 new municipalities, bringing the number of municipalities in Nepal to 191.

But the incidents of forest fire may easily counteract the nation's endeavor to protect and expand forest area.

Since February this year, over 500 wildfire-related events have been reported across the country, causing a total of 350,000 hectares of forest burnt down, local media reported. Endit