Jharkhand Rai University (JRU), Ranchi

India is ranks amongst the top 10 countries of the world, in terms of forest area and holds 3rd position for
highest annual net gain in forest cover between 2010-2020, as per Global Forest Resource Assessment (GFRA, 2020) published by FAO.
Therefore, India’s forests act as a net sink of corbon. This shows the commitment of our country towards climate change
mitigation and adaptaion.

The India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2023 has been published by the Forest Survey of India (FSI).

It is a biennial assessment of the country’s forest resources using satellite data and field information. ISFR 2023 is published in two volumes. The first report was published in 1987, and the recently published ISFR 2023 marks the 18th edition.

India State of Forest Report 2023 highlights are as follows –

For the first time, the report showcases forest cover change matrix inside and outside forest areas have been provided separately for clarity in analysis.
In the present report, FSI has given forest cover information for 751 districts including those created in the recent
past, as against 636 districts given in ISFR 2021.
The India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2023 shows that the country’s Forest and Tree cover now spans 827,357 square kilometers, covering 25.17% of the nation’s total land area.
This includes 715,343 square kilometers (21.76%) of forest cover and 112,014 square kilometers (3.41%) of tree cover. This progress reflects India’s successful efforts to balance development with environmental conservation.
The India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2023 highlights positive growth in India’s forest cover, increasing from 698,712 km² in 2013 to 715,343 km² in 2023.
Fire incidents have also decreased, with 203,544 fire hotspots recorded in 2023-24, down from 223,333 in 2021-22.
In line with India’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) target, the country has achieved a carbon sink of 30.43 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent.
This represents an additional 2.29 billion tonnes of carbon sink in Forest and Tree Cover since 2005, nearing the target of 2.5 to 3.0 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2030.
In this report, Agroforestry has been analyzed separately as it accounts for 1,27,590 km2 of tree cover and 1,292 M m3 of Growing stock and serves as livelihood enhancer.
For this report, Forest Cover Mapping was carried out using medium-resolution indigenous satellite data, sourced from the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) indigenous LISS-III sensor.
The report shows that the maximum increase in forest and tree cover has been observed in the States of Chhattisgarh (683.62 km2) followed by Uttar Pradesh (559.19 km2), Odisha (558.57 km2) and Rajasthan (394.46 km2).
The maximum decrease in forest and tree cover has been noticed in the state of Madhya Pradesh (612.41 km2) followed by Karnataka (459.36 km2), Ladakh (159.26 km2) and Nagaland (125.22 km2).
The total forest and tree cover in the North Eastern region is 1,74,394.70 km2, which is 67% of geographical area of these states. The current assessment shows adecrease of forest cover of 327.30 km2 in the region.