Forest cover and forest area

Also called: Recorded forest area · Topic: Natural Vegetation and Forests of India · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 5 "Natural Vegetation"

Meaning

Forest area (also called recorded forest area) is land listed as "forest" in government records, even if no trees grow on it. Forest cover is any land over 1 hectare with tree canopy density above 10%, as seen by satellite, whoever owns it and whatever its legal status.

The two figures often do not match, so neither one alone shows how much forest India really has. The gap between them is behind the debate over whether India's forests are really growing towards the 33% target.

Explanation

Forest area: a legal status

• Forest area is a legal and revenue status. It is a record on paper, not a measure of trees.
• The land counts as forest even if it is bare or degraded.

• It covers the legal classes of forest (reserved, protected and unclassed) set by forest laws such as the Indian Forest Act, 1927 [2].

• It is measured from land records and forest notifications, not from the sky.

• It is government forest land.

Forest cover: what the satellite sees

• Canopy is the roof of leaves and branches formed by tree crowns. Canopy density is the share of the ground shaded by tree crowns when seen from above.
• The rule: land over 1 ha with canopy density above 10% is forest cover. Who owns it and its legal status do not matter.

• So it includes orchards, plantations, village woodlots and trees outside recorded forest.

• How it is measured: the Forest Survey of India (FSI) maps forest cover by remote sensing (studying the Earth from satellites) every two years [3][2].

• It uses images from Indian Remote Sensing satellites (LISS-III sensor, about 1:50,000 scale).

• Steps: satellite image → computer sorts land by canopy density → ground check in the field → forest cover maps by state and district.

• Canopy density classes:

Class	Canopy density	Counted as forest cover?
Very dense forest (VDF)	70% and above	Yes
Moderately dense forest (MDF)	40–70%	Yes
Open forest (OF)	10–40%	Yes
Scrub	Below 10% (degraded land with scattered trees)	No

Why the two figures do not match

• Recorded forest can have little or no canopy. It stays forest on paper even when it is bare or degraded.
• Forest cover can lie outside recorded forest, for example a mango orchard, a tea-garden shade belt or a farm with many trees.
• The link between them: take recorded forest, subtract its bare patches, then add the green land outside it. The result is forest cover.
• FSI has digitised forest boundaries (turned them into computer maps) in 25 States/UTs. This makes it easier to check how much cover lies inside or outside recorded forest [2].

Feature	Forest area (recorded forest)	Forest cover
Basis	Legal status in government records	Actual tree canopy on the ground
How measured	Land records and forest notifications	Satellite images checked in the field
Ownership	Government forest land	Any owner: government, community or private
Includes orchards and plantations?	Only if inside recorded forest	Yes, if over 1 ha with canopy above 10%
Can it be treeless?	Yes	No, because canopy is needed

Tree cover and "green cover"

• Tree cover is counted separately. It means tree patches under 1 ha outside recorded forest, such as rows of trees along roads, canals and farm edges, or small blocks of trees.
• Forest cover + tree cover = "green cover", the figure used to measure progress towards the 33% target.
• ISFR 2023 figures [2]:
• Forest cover: 715,343 sq km (21.76%)
• Tree cover: 112,014 sq km (3.41%)
• Total: 827,357 sq km (25.17%) of India's geographical area

Where it occurs

• Who measures it: the Forest Survey of India (FSI), headquartered in Dehradun (Uttarakhand), works under the MoEFCC.
• It began as the Pre-Investment Survey of Forest Resources (PISFR) in 1965, with FAO and UNDP support [3].
• The National Commission on Agriculture (1976) recommended a national forest survey body. FSI was then set up on 1 June 1981 [3].

• It has four regional offices: Shimla (north), Kolkata (east), Nagpur (central) and Bengaluru (south) [3].

• Where it is reported: the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) is published by FSI every two years (biennial). The first came out in 1987.

• ISFR 2023, released in December 2024, is the 18th edition [2].

• Volume I gives national figures. Volume II gives figures for each state and UT, down to districts and forest divisions [2].

• Ten-year change: forest cover rose from 698,712 sq km (ISFR 2013) to 715,343 sq km (ISFR 2023) [2].

• Largest forest cover by area (ISFR 2023): Madhya Pradesh > Arunachal Pradesh > Chhattisgarh.
• Highest share of area under forest cover (ISFR 2023): Lakshadweep and Mizoram.
• Spatial pattern:
• High cover: the north-eastern hill states, the Western Ghats and the islands, where rainfall is heavy and slopes are steep.
• Low cover: Punjab, Haryana and the arid north-west (Rajasthan), where land is farmed intensively or the climate is dry.

Don't confuse with

• Forest area vs forest cover: forest area is a legal record and can be treeless. Forest cover needs actual canopy above 10% and can be on private land.
• Forest cover vs tree cover: forest cover is a patch over 1 ha. Tree cover is a patch under 1 ha outside recorded forest, such as roadside and canal-side tree rows.
• Open forest vs scrub: open forest (10–40% canopy) is forest cover. Scrub (below 10%) is not, even if a few trees stand on it.
• Forest cover vs natural forest: forest cover also counts plantations, orchards and tea or coffee shade trees. A rise in forest cover does not mean a rise in natural forest.

Prelims Hooks

• Both statements are true: forest cover includes orchards and plantations, and recorded forest area can include treeless land.
• Canopy classes: VDF ≥70%, MDF 40–70%, OF 10–40%. Scrub (<10%) is NOT forest cover.
• FSI: headquartered in Dehradun, set up on 1 June 1981 from PISFR (1965, with FAO–UNDP support), works under MoEFCC [3].
• ISFR is biennial and was first published in 1987. ISFR 2023 (released Dec 2024) is the 18th edition [2].
• ISFR 2023: forest cover 21.76% + tree cover 3.41% = 25.17% [2].
• Ordering by forest cover area: Madhya Pradesh > Arunachal Pradesh > Chhattisgarh. By share of area: Lakshadweep and Mizoram lead.

Mains Points

• Definitions shape the numbers (GS-III):
• Forest cover is measured by canopy alone and ignores ownership. So plantations, orchards and degraded open forest all count as "forest".
• That is why the headline rise (698,712 → 715,343 sq km, 2013–2023) [2] can hide a fall in forest quality. For example, very dense forest in the north-east is lost to shifting cultivation (jhum: clearing a forest patch, farming it for a few years, then moving on) and roads, while open forest grows from plantations.

• Fix: report natural forest separately from plantations, and show VDF trends by region.

• Closing the 33% gap (GS-III):

• The National Forest Policy, 1988 set a target of 33% of area under forest or tree cover, and two-thirds in hills. India is at about 25.17% [2].
• Recorded forest area has hardly grown since 1960-61. So most of the gain must come from trees outside forests: agroforestry (trees grown on farms with crops), Nagar Van Yojana (urban forests) and MISHTI (mangroves) [2].

• Restoring degraded recorded forest matters as much as new planting. The Green India Mission, CAMPA (compensatory afforestation: replanting to make up for forest land used for other purposes) and Joint Forest Management help here [2].

• Climate link (GS-III):

• Forest and tree cover hold a carbon sink of 30.43 billion tonnes of CO₂ equivalent. That is 2.29 billion tonnes more than in 2005, against an NDC (India's climate pledge under the Paris Agreement) target of an additional 2.5–3.0 billion tonnes by 2030 [2].
• Accurate forest cover data is therefore central to India's reporting to the UNFCCC [3].

Related concepts

• Forest cover classes
• Forest Survey of India
• India State of Forest Report

Read more

• How much forest? Forest area, forest cover and the ISFR