India has reported that its forest and tree cover now encompasses 25.17% of its geographical area at the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF), while highlighting several national conservation initiatives, the environment ministry said on Friday.
The statistic, part of the latest State of Forest report, was presented at the UNFF being held at the UN Headquarters in New York from May 5 to 9, where India detailed a “consistent increase” in forest and tree cover resulting from key programmes.
These initiatives include “restoration of land under the Aravalli Green Wall, a 7.86% increase in mangrove cover over the past decade, afforestation of over 1.55 lakh hectares under the Green India Mission, and plantation of 1.4 billion seedlings under the Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam (Plant4Mother) campaign,” the ministry statement noted.
India also participated in a high-level panel on “Valuing Forest Ecosystems in National Policy and Strategy,” sharing findings from pilot studies conducted in Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, and tiger reserves across the country.
These studies quantified ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, water provisioning, and biodiversity conservation, using frameworks including the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA).
While acknowledging challenges in valuing non-market services, India emphasised the need to integrate ecosystem valuation into national planning processes to ensure informed forest governance and long-term ecological sustainability.
According to the India State of Forest Report 2023 released by the Union Environment Ministry in December last year, the country’s forest and tree cover spans 8,27,357 sq km. This includes 21.76% forest cover and 3.41% tree cover.
The report shows an increase of 1,445 sq km in total green cover since 2021—an area comparable to Delhi. However, the release of the State of Forest report by the Forest Survey of India has been delayed by more than a year, despite being scheduled biennially. The previous report was published in 2021.
HT reported on December 24 that despite headline growth in green cover, the ISFR 2023 highlights concerning trends, including the degradation of large forest tracts, increased plantations, and ambiguity regarding “unclassed forests.” Experts warn these developments could seriously impact biodiversity, forest-dependent communities, and ecosystem services provided by old-growth forests.
Regarding the latest figures, experts said that the methodology has several problems.
“The methodology has several concerns that are problematic. The assessment of forest cover is flawed considering that even plantations and orchards and trees such as Mango and Coconut are counted under forest and tree cover. Moreover, the report has highlighted loss of unclassed forests to the tune of 1488 sq Kms between ISFR 2021 and 2023; large scale loss of forests in high altitude areas and degradation of forests by 92,989 sq km as reported in the ISFR 2023 besides non-compliance of crucial Supreme Court directives. This points to a reduction and degradation of forest cover and not an increase. We need a scientific and factual interpretation of the latest state of forest report and not a feel-good conclusion,” said Prakriti Srivastava, retired IFS and former principal chief conservator of forests, Kerala.
The report revealed that 40,709.28 sq km of forest area degraded between 2011 and 2021, transitioning from very dense and moderately dense to open forests.
The UNFF, which has evolved over two decades into a central actor in global forest policy, spearheads consensus on forest-related issues by adopting frameworks such as the UN Forest Instrument, the Global Forest Goals, and the United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests 2017–2030.
This Strategic Plan established six voluntary Global Forest Goals, including reversing deforestation, increasing forest area by 3% worldwide, and maintaining or enhancing the world’s forest carbon stocks.
The ongoing UNFF20 technical session focuses on three specific Global Forest Goals: reversing forest cover loss, increasing protected and sustainably managed forests, and promoting forest governance and legal frameworks.