The state of forest of West Bengal :

It is heartening to note that the forest cover of West Bengal is increasing gradually and consistently which very few state in India experiences. Forest department of government of West Bengal along with regional Remote Sensing Service Centre, IIT Kharagpur, regularly monitored forest cover of the state.

Forest cover as surveyed by Forest Dept. (W.B.) and RRSSC Kharagpur

Forest Survey of India (FSI), though, gives a different picture of forest area of West bengal, the increasing trend is well reflected. The difference of forest area is mainly due to two causes, though all data comes from the same source such as IRS-IB, IC and ID (IA being non-operative now).

1. In FSI survey only canopy covered areas are taken into consideration not taking into account the water bodies inside the forest. Forest ecosystems like "Sunderban" become meaningless without its water-bodies which are its veins and arteries.
2. The open forests, which are gradually spreading their canopy to achieve a coverage above 10% limit, has not been taken to consideration. This recovery is due to the changed management scenario which has faired well particularly in South Bengal making it a leader of JFM movement in the country.

Forest cover as surveyed by FSI

It has been rightly pointed out in FSI report (The state of Forest Report '95) "… This increase (in forest cover) is due to regeneration of Sal and its proper protection …."

The state has four clearly segregated major ecozones such as the such as the Hill forests, Plain forests of Duars and Tarai of North Bengal. The Sunderbans or Deltaic and Esturiane forests and the Lateritic Forests of South West Bengal. 

Arabari Experience:

West Bengal has been a pioneer of the JFM movement and has proved itself successful specially in degraded lateritic areas of South West Bengal. In the year 1992 the Arabari model of forest management was conferred with Paul Getty award. Gradually, participation of indigenous community in forest management converted to joint forest management where Forest Department jointly with forest protection committees (FPCs) started managing forests. Bilateral matching of institutions (FD & FPC) for managing natural resources look the shape of a massive peoples movement. During 1971-72 a bold forest officer of Midnapore undertook a pilot project known as Arabari Socio Economic Project ad managed by 618 families of 11 villages. During that time, there was no legal provision in forest policies and laws to involve people in forest management. The project was neither a government sponsored project nor was funded by any other agency. The forest officer had to meet in groups about 3607 villagers, to make them understand that if allowed to regenerate, these degraded forests may support livelyhood of many villagers in the long run. This venture not simply made a qualitative change in the degraded forests of Arabari but largly influenced the traditional forest management system giving it a dimension.