Uttarakhand - Department of Land Resources

Major forest types occurring in the State are Tropical Moist Deciduous, Tropical Dry
Deciduous, Sub-Tropical Pine, Himalayan Moist temperate, Himalayan Dry Temperate,
Sub Alpine and Alpine Forest. Forests are largely distributed throughout the State with
conifers and sal being the major forest formations. The State has 6 National Parks and
an equal number of Wildlife Sanctuaries covering an area of 0.71 million ha, which
constitutes 13.35% of its geographic area. The famous Corbett Tiger Reserve is located
in the State covering an area of 0.13 million ha. Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, having
an area of 0.59 million ha. is also located in this State.
The Forest Cover of the State, based on satellite data of October – December 2004, is
24,442 sq.km, which is 45.70% of the geographic area. Very dense forest is 4,002
sq.km. moderately dense forest 14,396 sq.km. and open forest 6,044 sq.km.
Van Panchayats in Uttaranchal were born out of conflicts and compromises that
followed the settlements and reservations of forests in the hills at turn of the last
century. The first government approved Van Panchayat was thus formed in 1921.
According to recent estimates, there are 6,069 Van Panchayats managing 405,426
hectares of forests (13.63% of total forest area) in the state. Most of these have been
carved out of civil (protected) forests under the jurisdiction of the Revenue Department.
The area under each Van Panchayat ranges from a fraction of a hectare up to over
2,000 hectares.
It may be mentioned here that Community forests managed in accordance with Van
Panchayat Act is a hybrid of state ownership and community responsibility. In its efforts
to manage and control community forest use Forest committees are guided by Revenue
Department rules and by the technical advice of the Forest Department. In contrast to
civil forests, community forests or Panchayati forests as they are popularly known are
not „open‟ forests. Access and use of forests is guided by rules elaborately designed
and implemented by the communities. Infact four identifiable working rules exist relating
to Use, Monitor, Sanctions and Arbitration. Though only notionally or nominally owned
by the communities, community forests are in a very real sense common property with
an identifiable user group, have finite subtractive benefits and are susceptible to
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