Status of Working Plans in Gujarat state

Gujarat state is situated along the western coast of the country with a total geographical area of 1,96,024 sq km having only 9.8% designated forest lands, divided by the Tropic of Cancer. The forests of Gujarat consist of four major types, namely (1) Tropical Moist Deciduous, (2) Tropical Dry Deciduous, (3) Littoral and Swamp and (4) Northern Tropical Thorny Forests. Most of the forest area is confined mainly in the districts of Valsad, Dangs, Vyara, Rajpipla, Chhotaudepur, Baria, Godhra, Sabarkantha, Banaskantha, Junagadh and Kachchh. Mangrove forests are mainly found in Jamnagar and Kachchh districts.

For forestry management purpose, the forests of the State are divided into 20 territorial forest divisions and 2 forest sub-divisions and these are covered under 16 approved Working Plans (as shown in the Statement). Total forest area covered under the management of Working Plans 16,39,451 ha. The area covered under the working plans are less than the actual forest area of the State because rest of the area are covered under Management plans of Sanctuaries and National parks. All of these Working Plans have basically been formulated for improving conservation and development of forest resources of the state. Clear-felling of forest area is not included in any of these plans. Much higher emphasis has been given to conservation, people’s involvement for regeneration of forests, increasing the NTFP outputs, bio-diversity conservation, medicinal plants, etc. The working plans are supported by different ongoing research projects like Forest Resource Survey, Socio-Economic studies, Regeneration studies and specific studies on seeds, seedlings etc.