India’s ‘missing’ forests: DTE analysis exposes big gap in latest national forest survey estimates

The India State of Forest Report 2021 (ISFR 2021), released recently, has a huge hole in its estimations, according to a new analysis done by Down To Earth. The analysis, which appears as the cover story in the February 16 issue of the magazine, says India is “missing” almost 26 million hectares of its forests.

This is the difference between what is ‘recorded’ as forest area, and the actual forest cover that exists on that recorded area. The recorded forest area, as per the ISFR 2021, is 77.53 million ha (hectare). But the forest cover on these lands is said to be 51.66 million ha. This means as much as 34 per cent of the area classified as forests — 25.87 million ha — is missing in the assessment! The India State of Forest Report 2021 does not explain what is happening to this huge tract of forest land — equal in size to the state of Uttar Pradesh.