India’s forest cover potential to absorb greenhouse gases can bring in more than Rs 6,000 crore annually to the country’s coffers, a report prepared by Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education has said.

The report is a first ever attempt to calibrate carbon content of the Indian forest cover by the Dehradun based organisation.

Cashing in on Indian forests’ capability to mitigate the impact of greenhouse gases based on the carbon content calibration will be a focal point of the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCCC) in Copenhagen later this year, Union Minister of State for Forest and Environment Jairam Ramesh said at a convocation in Indira Gandhi National Forestry Academy here on Monday.

Ramesh said that India has equipped itself with unique expertise on the matter. A comprehensive picture of the report titled ‘India’s Forest and Tree Cover Contribution as a Carbon Sink’ would be available later this year but preliminary data in the shape of a brochure was unveiled by the Union Forest Minister at the convocation.

According to Ramesh, India’s contention during UNCCC at Copenhagen would be to obtain maximum benefit from the developed nations as to its contribution to conservation of the global environment.

“Developing nations like Brazil and others always demand compensation for their contribution in preventing deforestation. We would ask for compensation in terms of carbon content absorption by our forest cover which is a more scientific and professional method of fixing prices,” said the Union Minister.

The preliminary report states that India’s forests serve as a major sink for carbon dioxide. The report says that annual CO2 removal by India’s forest and tree cover is enough to neutralise 11.25 per cent of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

According to the report, India’s carbon stock stored in its forests have increased from 6,245 million tonnes to 6,662 million tonnes between 1995 and 2005 registering an annual increment of 38 million tonnes of carbon or 138 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. This is anticipated to go up further by 24,000 million tonnes with the support of an ongoing sustainable forest management plan and other schemes. If this carbon content is translated into its monetary value at the rate of Rs five per tonne, it touches around $120 billion or Rs 6,000 crore annually.

Appreciating the carbon content figure of India, the Forest Minister said that the mitigating ability of our forest carbon stock has to be further enhanced and closely monitored so that its does not goes below this level. “This will constantly be monitored and fresh data of carbon content prepared biannually in order to keep a tab on our carbon content,” Ramesh said.

Ramesh informed that a compensatory afforestation fund released by CAMPA, a central Government body, will not be allowed to use for plantation activities by the States. “Plantation activities in India normally remained on paper and never reached the ground level,” said the Minister. According to the Union Minister Uttarakhand would get Rs 84 crore as 10 per cent of its total allocation in the first phase.