Forest cover by state in India

List of how many forests and percentage of forest cover in India by state.

Tree density

Tree density is the quantification of how closely the trees are growing in a hectare area. It is not the exact number of trees in the forest but, serves as an estimate to the foresters.[1].The tree density of an area should be mentioned by the working Plan officer (WPO) or Divisional Forest Officer (Working Plan) after his field inspection of the lowest possible forest unit or compartment in the CH-3 form of compartment history. The compartment history forms are to be maintained at the Forest range and Forest division offices.[2] The working Plan code-2014 mentions in the para 105 that the density should also be mentioned on the stock map prepared by the WPO/DFO in decimal figures. The crown density is similar to the tree density. The forest area with density more than 0.4 are considered good forest area and forest area with less than 0.4 tree density are considered degraded forest.

Forest cover

Forest cover is the total geographical area declared as forest by the government. As of 2019, the total forest cover in India is 712,249 Sq km (71.22 million hectares), which is 21.67 percent of the total geographical area. The total forest cover as per the IFSR-2021-22 is 80.90 million hectares that is 24.62% .Whereas, the total forest and tree cover in India is 807,276 Sq km (80.73 million hectors), which is 24.56 percent of the total geographical area of the country. There is 2261 sq.km increase in forest cover as per 2019. Madhya Pradesh has the highest forest cover as per the area followed by the Andhra Pradesh. Total geographical area of the India Mizoram has the highest forest cover. Maximum increase in the forest cover of the cities include Andhra Pradesh telangana and Odisha. Ministry of the environment forest and climate change used used the mid resolution satellite data on LISS-III data from Indian remote sensing satellite data (resourcecast-III). Minister of environment forest and climate change Bhupendra Yadav released the Indian forest survey report 2021-22 on the 13 January 2022. As per report, 17 states have above 33% forest cover.

Forest cover over the years

Indian Forest cover map as of 2015

Year	Total forest area (in sq km)	% of forested area	%change
2019[3]	712,249	21.67%	0.13%
2017[4]	708,273	21.54%	0.20%
2015[5]	701,673	21.34%	0.11%
2013[6]	697,898	21.23%	0.18%
2011[7]	692,027	21.05%

2017

The forest cover in 2017 in India by state and union territory as published by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) is shown in the table below.[8][9]

Very Dense= All lands with tree canopy density of 70 percent ( 0.7 tree density) and above.

Moderately Dense= All lands with tree canopy density of 40 percent and more but less than 70 percent ( 0.4 to 0.7 tree density).

Open Forest= All lands with tree canopy density of 10 percent and more but less than 40 percent (0.1 to 0.4 tree density).

Scrub= All forest lands with poor tree growth mainly of small or stunted trees canopy density less than 10 percent (Less than 0.1 tree density).

(Area in square kilometers)

State / UT	Geographical Area	Very dense	Moderately dense	Open forest	Total forest area	% of forested area	% change since 2015
Andhra Pradesh	162,968	1,957	14,051	12,139	28,147	17.27%	+1.31%
Arunachal Pradesh	83,743	20,721	30,955	15,288	66,964	79.96%	-0.23%
Assam	78,438	2,797	10,192	15,116	28,105	35.83%	+0.72%
Bihar	94,163	332	3,260	3,707	7,299	7.75%	+0.05%
Chhattisgarh	135,192	7,064	32,215	16,268	55,547	41.09%	-0.01%
Delhi	1,483	7	56	129	192	20.6%	+0.25%
Goa	3,702	538	576	1,115	2,229	60.21%	+0.51%
Gujarat	196,244	378	5,200	9,179	14,757	7.52%	+0.02%
Haryana	44,212	28	452	1,108	1,588	3.59%	+0.02%
Himachal Pradesh	55,673	3,110	6,705	5,285	15,100	27.12%	+0.71%
Jammu & Kashmir	222,236	4,075	8,579	10,587	23,241	10.46%	+0.11%
Jharkhand	79,716	2,598	9,686	11,269	23,553	29.55%	+0.04%
Karnataka	191,791	4,502	20,444	12,604	37,550	19.58%	+0.57%
Kerala	38,852	1,663	9,407	8,251	20,321	52.30%	+2.68%
Madhya Pradesh	308,252	6,563	34,571	36,280	77,414	25.11%	-0.00%
Maharashtra	307,713	8,736	20,652	21,294	50,682	16.47%	-0.01%
Manipur	22,327	908	6,510	9,928	17,346	77.69%	+1.18%
Meghalaya	22,429	453	9,386	7,307	17,146	76.76%	-0.52%
Mizoram	21,081	131	5,861	12,194	18,186	86.27%	-2.52%
Nagaland	16,579	1,279	4,587	6,623	12,489	75.33%	-2.71%
Odisha	155,707	6,967	21,370	23,008	51,345	32.98%	+0.57%
Punjab	50,362	8	806	1,023	1,837	3.65%	+0.13%
Rajasthan	342,239	78	4,340	12,154	16,572	4.84%	+0.14%
Sikkim	7,096	1,081	1,575	688	3,344	47.13%	-0.13%
Tamil Nadu	130,060	3,672	10,979	11,630	26,281	20.21%	+0.06%
Telangana	112,077	1,596	8,738	10,085	26969	18.22%	+0.50%
Tripura	10,486	656	5,246	1,824	7,726	73.68%	-1.56%
Uttar Pradesh	240,928	2,617	4,069	7,993	14,679	6.09%	+0.12%
Uttarakhand	53,483	4,969	12,884	6,442	24,295	45.43%	+0.04%
West Bengal	88,752	2,994	4,147	9,706	16,847	18.98%	+0.02%
Andaman & Nicobar Islands	8,249	5,678	684	380	6,742	81.73%	-0.11%
Chandigarh	114	1	14	6	22	18.91%	-0.09%
Dadra & Nagar Haveli	491	0	80	127	207	42.16%	+0.20%
Daman & Diu	111	1	6	13	20	18.46%	+0.79%
Lakshadweep	30	0	17	10	27	90.33%	0.13%
Puducherry	490	0	18	36	54	10.95%	-0.67%
Total	3,287,469	98,158	308,318	301,797	708,273	21.54%	+0.21%

2015

According to Forest Survey of India (FSI), the forest cover by State/UT in India in 2015 is listed below.[8]

Very Dense= All lands with tree canopy density of 70 percent and above.

Moderately Dense= All lands with tree canopy density of 40 percent and more but less than 70 percent.

Open Forest= All lands with tree canopy density of 10 percent and more but less than 40 percent.