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Context:

India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2023 has been released by Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).

About India State of Forest Report (ISFR)

It has been published by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) every two years since 1987.
It conducts an in-depth assessment of the country's forest and tree resources based on the interpretation of remote sensing satellite data and field-based National Forest Inventory (NFI).
The State of India's Forest Report 2023 is the 18th such report in a row.
The report includes information on forest cover, tree cover, mangrove cover, growing stock, carbon stock in Indian forests, forest fire incidents, agroforestry, etc.

Key Highlights of the Report

Forest and Tree Cover: The total forest and tree cover in the country is 8,27,356.95 km2 which is 25.17% of the country's Geographical Area (GA). The total forest cover is 7,15,342.61 km2 (21.76%), while tree cover is 1,12,014.34 km2 (3.41%).

Class	Area (km²)	Percentage of Geographical Area (GA)
Forest Cover	7,15,342.61	21.76%
Tree Cover	1,12,014.34	3.41%
Total Forest and Tree Cover	8,27,356.95	25.17%
Scrub	43,622.64	1.33%
Non Forest	24,16,489.29	73.50%
Geographical Area of the Country	32,87,468.88	100.00%

Category	Details
Increase in Forest and Tree Cover	Total increase: 1,445.81 km²
	Forest cover increase: 156.41 km² (compared to 2021)
Maximum Increase (Forest and Tree Cover)	Chhattisgarh: 684 km² Uttar Pradesh: 559 km² Odisha: 559 km² Rajasthan: 394 km²
Maximum Increase (Forest Cover)	Mizoram: 242 km² Gujarat: 180 km² Odisha: 152 km²
Biggest Decline (Forest Cover)	Madhya Pradesh: 612.41 km² Karnataka: 459.36 km² Ladakh: 159.26 km² Nagaland: 125.22 km²
Top Three States (Forest Area Coverage)	Madhya Pradesh: 77,073 km² Arunachal Pradesh: 65,882 km² Chhattisgarh: 55,812 km²
Top States (% Forest Cover to GA)	Lakshadweep: 91.33% Mizoram: 85.34% Andaman & Nicobar Islands: 81.62%
High Forest Cover States/UTs	19 states and UTs have more than 33% forest cover of their geographical area.
	Eight states and UTs (Mizoram, Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura, Manipur) have over 75% forest cover.
Forest Carbon Stock	Total: 7,285.5 million tonnes Increase: 81.5 million tonnes (compared to 2021)
Top States (Forest Carbon Stock)	Arunachal Pradesh: 1,021 Mt Madhya Pradesh: 608 Mt Chhattisgarh: 505 Mt Maharashtra: 465 Mt
India's Carbon Stock (CO2 Equivalent)	Total: 30.43 billion tonnes Increase since 2005 base year: 2.29 billion tonnes
WGESA (Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Areas)	Total area: 60,285.61 km² Forest coverage: 44,043.99 km² (73%)
Northeastern Region Forest and Tree Cover	Total: 1,74,394.70 km² Percentage of geographical area: 67%
Mangrove Cover	Total: 4,991.68 km² (0.15% of GA) Decrease: 7.43 km² (compared to 2021)
State wise Mangrove Changes	Decrease: Gujarat (36.39 km²) Increase: Andhra Pradesh (13.01 km²), Maharashtra (12.39 km²)
Forest Fires (2023 24 Season)	Top three states: Uttarakhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh