India has ascended to the ninth position worldwide in terms of total forest area, according to the Global Forest Resources Assessment (GFRA) 2025, released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This marks an improvement from its previous ranking of tenth. The country also maintained its third position globally in terms of annual forest area gain.
The total forest area in India is approximately 72.73 million hectares, constituting about 2% of the world's total forest area. While this figure is a notable achievement, it's important to consider that forests cover 4.14 billion hectares globally, representing about 32% of the planet's land area. Russia holds the highest forest area globally at 832.6 million hectares, followed by Brazil (486 million hectares), Canada (368.8 million hectares), the United States (308.89 million hectares) and China (227.15 million hectares).
Bhupender Yadav, the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, announced the achievement and credited it to the government's consistent policies and programs under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which focus on forest conservation, afforestation, and community participation. He also acknowledged the significant contribution of large-scale plantation drives by state governments and the Prime Minister's call for environmental consciousness, particularly the 'Ek Ped Ma Ke Naam' campaign, which encourages citizens to plant trees.
The GFRA 2025, which is released every five years, is based on data reported by individual countries and reviewed by member nations. It supports the monitoring of international commitments, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, and the United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests 2017–2030.
While India has shown progress in increasing its forest cover, challenges remain. A recent report highlighted that between 2010-11 and 2021-22, very dense forests in India grew 22.7% to 102,502 sq km, while moderately dense forests shrank, and open forests increased due to plantations. Also, there have been reports of degradation and decline in density inside recorded forests.
India defines forest area as "all lands, more than one hectare with a tree canopy density of more than or equal to 10% irrespective of ownership, legal status and land use". The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change issues advisories to state governments and Union Territories to enforce relevant laws and provisions for the protection and conservation of forests.
The consistent increase in forest and tree cover is also a result of key national initiatives like the restoration of land under the Aravalli Green Wall, an increase in mangrove cover, afforestation of over 1.55 lakh hectares under the Green India Mission, and plantation of 1.4 billion seedlings under the Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam campaign. As of 2023, India's forest and tree cover encompasses 8,27,357 sqkm, which is 25.17% of the country's geographical area. Of this, around 21.76% is forest cover, and about 3.41% is tree cover.
