Forest survey misses the wood for the trees

Expanding green cover in the country should normally be heartening, but the true story of India's forests lies beyond the marginal growth in forest and tree cover recorded in the latest edition of the India State of Forest Report.

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To be sure, as the climate crisis unfolds, reafforestation figures high among mitigation efforts, and, against this backdrop, the 1,445 sq km of green cover in India that was added in the last two years matters. However, the fact that old-growth, natural forests continue to degrade while nearly the entire growth in forest cover is outside recorded forest areas—likely monoculture plantations and agroforestry—complicates the picture in the long run.