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Forest cover and forest conservation

Soils and natural vegetation of India · Part 4 / 4 · Fact-checked on 8 November 2026 · how we check

Written with AI from the sources listed at the bottom of this page, then fact-checked by a separate AI.

The Forest Survey of India and how it measures forest cover, tree cover and recorded forest area; the India State of Forest Report 2023; the National Forest Policy 1988, the 42nd Amendment, Articles 48A and 51A(g) and the Forest (Conservation) Act 1980 with its 2023 amendment; social forestry, Joint Forest Management, Chipko and Appiko; the Green India Mission and forests as a carbon sink.

Part 3 described the forests India would have if nature alone decided. This last part asks how much of that cover survives, who measures it and how it is protected. Science supplies the numbers: the Forest Survey of India maps forests from satellites every two years. Law and policy set the rules on who may cut or divert forest land. People supply the energy: movements such as Chipko, and programmes that share forest management with villages, showed that forests last longer when local people have a stake in them.

The Forest Survey of India (FSI), set up in 1981 with its headquarters at Dehradun under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, is the national body that measures India's forests. Since 1987 it has published the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) every two years, using Indian remote-sensing satellite images checked against field plots. Its key measure is forest cover: every patch of a hectare or more where tree crowns shade over 10 per cent of the ground, whoever owns it. Canopy density means the share of the ground shaded by tree crowns when seen from above. The FSI divides forest cover into three classes: very dense forest (70 per cent canopy or more), moderately dense forest (40 to 70 per cent) and open forest (10 to 40 per cent). Scrub, degraded land with canopy below 10 per cent, is mapped but not counted as forest cover. Because the definition looks only at trees, orchards, bamboo groves and plantations of one hectare or more are counted too.

Two other terms are often confused with forest cover. tree cover counts the trees that grow outside recorded forests in patches smaller than one hectare: village groves, roadside lines, trees on farm boundaries and in towns. These are too small to appear as forest cover but add up to a large area. recorded forest area is a legal, not a satellite, measure: all land recorded as forest in government records, mainly reserved and protected forests under the Indian Forest Act, 1927, and unclassed forests. The two do not match. Some recorded forest land has lost its trees and appears as scrub or blank on the satellite map, while much forest cover lies outside recorded forest, for example in community forests of the north-east, private woodlots and plantations.

The latest report, ISFR 2023, released in December 2024, is the eighteenth in the series. It put India's forest cover at about 7,15,343 sq km, or 21.76 per cent of the country's geographical area, and tree cover at about 1,12,014 sq km, or 3.41 per cent. Together, forest and tree cover came to about 8,27,357 sq km, or 25.17 per cent of India, an increase of about 1,445 sq km over ISFR 2021, most of it from tree cover outside forests. By area, Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest cover, followed by Arunachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. By share of its own area, Mizoram leads among the states and Lakshadweep among the Union Territories, and the north-eastern states as a group are heavily forested. Forest and tree cover together thus stand at about a quarter of India, against the one-third target of national forest policy.

ISFR 2023 also reports two figures UPSC likes to test. mangrove cover was about 4,992 sq km, roughly 0.15 per cent of India's area. West Bengal holds the largest share, mainly in the Sundarbans, followed by Gujarat and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The report also estimates the carbon held in India's forests, in trees, dead wood, litter and soil, at about 7,285.5 million tonnes, some 81.5 million tonnes more than in the 2021 assessment. Most of this carbon is in the soil rather than in the trees above it. This measure links forests to climate policy: a growing forest is a carbon sink, drawing carbon dioxide out of the air and storing it.

Forest policy shows how India's view of forests has changed. The colonial policy of 1894 and the first post-independence policy of 1952 treated forests mainly as a source of revenue and of raw material for industry and railways. The National Forest Policy of 1988 reversed the priority. Its main aim is environmental stability and ecological balance, and it says that earning revenue must be secondary. It sets a national goal of having one-third of India's geographical area under forest or tree cover, and two-thirds in the hills and mountains, where forests prevent erosion and protect water sources. It also says that the needs of tribal and other forest-dwelling people for fuelwood, fodder and small timber should be the first charge on forest produce, and it calls for people's participation in protecting forests.

The Constitution was amended to give forests a firmer footing. Originally 'forests' was a subject in the State List. The 42nd Amendment of 1976 moved 'forests' and 'protection of wild animals and birds' to the Concurrent List, as entries 17A and 17B, so that Parliament as well as the state legislatures can make laws on them, and a central law prevails in case of conflict. The same amendment added two provisions. Article 48A, among the Directive Principles of State Policy, asks the State to try to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the country's forests and wildlife. Article 51A(g), among the Fundamental Duties, makes it the duty of every citizen 'to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wild life, and to have compassion for living creatures'.

The main law that guards forest land is the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. It was passed because states were releasing large areas of forest for farming, dams, mines and industry. Under Section 2, a state government needs the prior approval of the Central Government before it dereserves a reserved forest, uses forest land for any non-forest purpose, leases it to a private body, or clears naturally grown trees in order to plant others. Diverted land must usually be made good by compensatory afforestation, whose funds are managed under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016. In T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India (order of 1996), the Supreme Court held that 'forest' in the Act must be read in its dictionary sense, covering every area recorded as forest in government records and any land that is forest in fact, whoever owns it. The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023 renamed the law the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980, limited it mainly to land notified or recorded as forest, and exempted some categories, for instance, linear projects of strategic and national-security importance up to 100 km from the international borders.

Laws alone could not stop forest loss, because millions of people depend on forests for fuel, fodder and income. Two ideas tried to turn them from users into partners. social forestry, a term made popular by the National Commission on Agriculture in 1976, means growing trees outside forests, on village common land, along roads, canals and railway lines, on farm boundaries and in towns, so that local needs are met without cutting natural forest. Agroforestry, the growing of trees together with crops or livestock on the same farm, follows the same logic, and India adopted a National Agroforestry Policy in 2014. The second idea was Joint Forest Management (JFM). Inspired by an experiment at Arabari in West Bengal in the early 1970s, the Centre issued guidelines on 1 June 1990 asking states to involve village committees in protecting degraded forests, in return for a share of the produce.

Two people's movements are the most famous chapters in this story. The Chipko movement began in 1973 in the Chamoli district of the Garhwal Himalaya, now in Uttarakhand, when villagers organised by the Dasholi Gram Swarajya Sangh under Chandi Prasad Bhatt stopped contractors from felling trees near Mandal village. Its best-known moment came in 1974 at Reni, where Gaura Devi and other women clasped the trees to stop the felling; 'chipko' means 'to cling'. Sunderlal Bahuguna carried its message across the Himalaya, and the movement pressed the government to restrict commercial felling in the hill forests. In 1983 the same idea moved south as the Appiko movement in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, where villagers of Salkani, inspired by Panduranga Hegde, hugged trees in the Western Ghats to stop felling; 'appiko' is the Kannada word for 'to hug'.

Why does all this effort matter? Forests hold soil on slopes, feed springs and rivers, moderate floods, shelter most of India's wildlife and supply fuel, fodder, food, medicine and income to the people who live in and around them. They have also become central to climate policy. In its climate pledge under the Paris Agreement, India promised to create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030 through more forest and tree cover. ISFR 2023 estimated that, compared with the 2005 baseline, India had already added a sink of about 2.29 billion tonnes. The National Mission for a Green India, one of the eight missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change of 2008, works towards this goal: it aims to increase forest and tree cover on 5 million hectares and to improve the quality of forest on another 5 million hectares, with local communities and Gram Sabhas involved in planning and protection.

This part closes the chapter. The four parts together trace a single chain: rock and climate make soil (Parts 1 and 2), soil and rainfall decide natural vegetation (Part 3), and people decide how much of that vegetation survives (Part 4). To measure what survives, the FSI's satellite-based forest cover must be kept apart from tree cover and from the legal recorded forest area; by ISFR 2023, forest and tree cover together reached about a quarter of India, still short of the one-third goal of the 1988 policy. To protect it, the Constitution since 1976 places forests in the Concurrent List and adds Article 48A and Article 51A(g), while the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, as amended in 2023, controls the diversion of forest land. And to make protection last, India has turned to people: social forestry and agroforestry outside forests, Joint Forest Management inside them, and the example of Chipko and Appiko, with the Green India Mission and the carbon-sink pledge pointing the way ahead.

Exam traps

• RECORDED FOREST AREA (land listed as forest in government records) differs from FOREST COVER (seen by satellite: 1 ha or more, canopy over 10%, any owner). Orchards and plantations of 1 ha or more count as forest cover.
• Scrub (canopy below 10%) is mapped but NOT counted as forest cover; open forest starts at 10% canopy and very dense forest at 70%.
• ISFR 2023: forest cover about 21.76%, tree cover about 3.41%, together about 25.17% of India. The 1988 policy target is ONE-THIRD (two-thirds in the hills), not 25%.
• By AREA of forest cover the top state is Madhya Pradesh; by SHARE of its own geographical area it is Mizoram among states and Lakshadweep among Union Territories.
• Article 48A (State to protect environment, forests and wild life) is a DIRECTIVE PRINCIPLE; Article 51A(g) is the citizen's FUNDAMENTAL DUTY. Both were added by the 42nd Amendment, 1976, which also moved forests to the Concurrent List.
• Chipko began in 1973 in Chamoli (Garhwal Himalaya; Gaura Devi at Reni in 1974); Appiko began in 1983 in Uttara Kannada, Karnataka. Do not swap the places or years.
• JFM rests on central guidelines of 1 June 1990, inspired by the Arabari experiment in West Bengal; it is not a statute.
• The Green India Mission is one of the eight missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (2008); India's climate pledge is an ADDITIONAL carbon sink of 2.5–3 billion tonnes CO2 equivalent by 2030.

Recap

• FSI (1981, Dehradun) publishes the India State of Forest Report every two years since 1987, from satellite data checked in the field.
• Forest cover: land of 1 ha or more with canopy above 10%, any ownership; very dense (70%+), moderately dense (40–70%), open (10–40%); scrub excluded.
• Tree cover: tree patches under 1 ha outside recorded forest; recorded forest area: land in government records, a legal measure.
• ISFR 2023: forest cover about 21.76%, tree cover about 3.41%, together about 25.17%; Madhya Pradesh largest by area; mangroves about 4,992 sq km; carbon stock about 7,285.5 million tonnes.
• National Forest Policy 1988: ecology before revenue; one-third of area under forest or tree cover, two-thirds in hills; local needs first.
• 42nd Amendment 1976: forests and wildlife to the Concurrent List; Article 48A (Directive Principle) and Article 51A(g) (Fundamental Duty).
• Forest (Conservation) Act 1980: central approval to divert forest land; Godavarman (1996) read 'forest' broadly; 2023 amendment renamed and narrowed it.
• People: social forestry (NCA 1976), National Agroforestry Policy 2014, JFM (1 June 1990), Chipko (1973, Chamoli), Appiko (1983, Uttara Kannada).
• Climate: additional sink of 2.5–3 billion tonnes CO2e by 2030; Green India Mission under the NAPCC (2008).

Practice questions

Sources

• Forest Survey of India: India State of Forest Report 2023 (released December 2024), definitions of forest cover, tree cover and recorded forest area — https://fsi.nic.in
• Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change: National Forest Policy 1988, Joint Forest Management guidelines (1 June 1990), National Mission for a Green India, India's Nationally Determined Contribution (2015) — https://moef.gov.in
• Constitution of India: Articles 48A and 51A(g), Seventh Schedule List III entries 17A and 17B (Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976) — https://legislative.gov.in/constitution-of-india
• Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 as amended by the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023; Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016 — https://www.indiacode.nic.in
• Supreme Court of India: T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India, order of 12 December 1996 — https://main.sci.gov.in