Forest Cover in India

As per India State of Forest Report, 2011, the forest cover of India is 6,92,027 Km². The details of forest cover, state-wise are given below :-

State/UT	Geographical Area	2011 Assessment
State/UT	Geographical Area	Very Dense Forest	Mod. Dense Forest	Open Forest	Total	Forest cover as percentage of geographical area (%)
Andhra Pradesh	275069	850	26242	19297	46389	16.86
Arunachal Pradesh	83743	20868	31519	15023	67410	80.50
Assam	78438	1444	11404	14825	27673	35.28
Bihar	94163	231	3280	3334	6845	7.27
Chhattisgarh	135191	4163	34911	16600	55674	41.18
Delhi	1483	7	49	120	176	11.88
Goa	3702	543	585	1091	2219	59.94
Gujarat	196022	376	5231	9012	14619	7.46
Haryana	44212	27	457	1124	1608	3.64
Himachal Pradesh	55673	3224	6381	5074	14679	26.37
Jammu & Kashmir	222236	4140	8760	9639	22539	10.14
Jharkhand	79714	2590	9917	10470	22977	28.82
Karnataka	191791	1777	20179	14238	36194	18.87
Kerala	38863	1442	9394	6464	17300	44.52
Madhya Pradesh	308245	6640	34986	36074	77700	25.21
Maharashtra	307713	8736	20815	21095	50646	16.46
Manipur	22327	730	6151	10209	17090	76.54
Meghalaya	22429	433	9775	7067	17275	77.02
Mizoram	21081	134	6086	12897	19117	90.68
Nagaland	16579	1293	4931	7094	13318	80.33
Orissa	155707	7060	21366	20477	48903	31.41
Punjab	50362	0	736	1028	1764	3.50
Rajasthan	342239	72	4448	11567	16087	4.70
Sikkim	7096	500	2161	698	3359	47.34
Tamil Nadu	130058	2948	10321	10356	23625	18.16
Tripura	10486	109	4686	3182	7977	76.04
Uttar Pradesh	240928	1626	4559	8153	14338	5.95
Uttarakhand	53483	4762	14167	5567	24496	45.80
West Bengal	88752	2984	4646	5365	12995	14.64
A&NIslands	8249	3761	2416	547	6724	81.51
Chandigarh	114	1	10	6	17	14.72
Dadra & Nagar Haveli	491	0	114	97	211	42.97
Daman & Diu	112	0	0.62	5.53	6	5.49
Lakshadweep	32	0	17.18	9.88	27	84.56
Puducherry	480	0	35.37	14.69	50	10.43
Grand Total	3287263	83471	320736	287820	692027	21.05

This was stated by Shrimati Jayanthi Natarajan Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment and Forests, in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.

The Minister further stated that the Central Government, as on 31.03.2013, accorded 23,367 approvals under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 for diversion of 11,57,468 hectares of forest land for non-forest purpose. To mitigate impacts of diversion of forest land on the ecology, environment, biodiversity and overall forest cover in the country, the Central Government while according approvals under the Forest (conservation) Act, 1980 for diversion of forest land stipulates appropriate conditions. Important among these are transfer and mutation of equivalent non-forest land in favour of State Forest Department (SFD) for compensatory afforestation from the funds provided by the user agency; notification of such non-forest land transferred in favour of the SFD as Reserved Forest/Protected Forest; realization of the Net Present Value (NPV) of the diverted forest from the user agency for execution of various activities for conservation, protection and management of forests and wildlife; and realization of funds from the user agencies for preparation and execution of appropriate plans for conservation and development of wildlife in and around the forest land proposed to be diverted for non-forest purposes.

The Minister further stated that As mentioned in India State of Forest Report-2011, gregarious occurrence of weeds like lantana in forest areas and agricultural crops like sugarcane, cotton, etc. occurring in the vicinity of forest area cause mixing of the spectral signatures and often make precise forest cover delineation difficult. However, Forest Survey of India takes due care for such areas and through extensive ground truthing this error is minimized. As per ISFR-2011 the accuracy of classification of forest cover is 95.23%.