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The India State of Forest Report (ISFR), due for release in 2023, has been delayed by over a year, leading to widespread speculation among current and former forestry officials at various levels.
The report which is released every two years, is produced by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) under the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC). It has been published since 1991 and provides a comprehensive overview of the state of India’s forests.
A Right to Information (RTI) request filed by Down To Earth (DTE) on August 23, 2024, seeking clarity on the delay, has yet to receive a response from the ministry. This marks the second occasion when the government has missed the report’s publication deadline — the last instance occurred in 2007.
During this period, responses from forest officials have been mixed. “It’s likely that forest cover has diminished significantly, which may be why the government is reluctant to release the report,” a senior official told DTE.
The last report, published in 2021, recorded the country’s total forest cover at 713,789 square kilometres or 21.71 per cent — a marginal increase of 1,540 square kilometres compared to the 2019 ISFR publication.
The National Forest Policy aims for 33.3 per cent of land in plains and 66.6 per cent in hilly regions to be forested to achieve environmental stability and ecological balance.
Officials also expressed concerns over discrepancies in forest data classification. This comes after retired officials from the forest and environment departments, along with environmental activists, approached the Supreme Court to challenge amendments to the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023.
The Act, now renamed the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 2023, was passed by the central government, exempting unrecorded and deemed forests from government records. Activists argue that these vulnerable forests could be diverted for development and infrastructure projects.
On February 19, 2024, the Supreme Court ordered the government to publish State Expert Committee (SEC) reports online via the MoEFCC portal. These reports are intended to identify and list forests in accordance with the 1996 TN Godavarman Thirumulkpad vs Union Of India ruling, which defined forests by their dictionary meaning, regardless of ownership.
Despite claims of increasing forest cover, international organisations like Global Forest Watch (GFW) have reported that India lost approximately 23,300 square kilometres of tree cover between 2001 and 2023, Prakriti Srivastava, a retired principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) from Kerala and one of the petitioners challenging the FCA, pointed out.
GFW also noted that from 2013 to 2023, 95 per cent of deforestation occurred in natural forests. In May 2024, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) took cognisance of this and demanded an explanation from the MoEFCC.
On August 8, MoEFCC minister Bhupender Yadav informed Parliament that India had lost 173,396 hectares (1,733 square kilometres) of forest for development works. He also claimed that compensatory afforestation had recovered 21,761 square kilometres of forest area between 2013 and 2023.
The manipulated false data is likely to be exposed to the public, making it difficult for the central government to explain the mismatches, according to officials. “Especially now that SEC reports have been made public, showing that many recorded and deemed forests remain unidentified on the ground and the ISFR publications have not incorporated Supreme Court orders like the 2011 Lafarge ruling,” Srivastava stated.
She also criticised the FSI’s reliance on automated algorithms to analyse satellite imagery, which records green cover but fails to differentiate between forests, tree plantations and orchards, resulting in inflated forest cover statistics.
Moreover, state-wise analyses of forest data in ISFR publications from 1999 to 2021 revealed numerous discrepancies concerning unclassified forests, which are non-notified forests under government ownership, primarily managed by departments such as revenue or railways.
“For example, in Odisha, unclassified forests increased from 17 square kilometres to 16,282 square kilometres between 1999 and 2015 but dropped to 22 square kilometres in the 2017 report,” Srivastava stated, adding that no explanation was provided for the drastic drop.
She also highlighted significant inconsistencies in Goa’s unclassified forest data, which ranged from 1,259 square kilometres in 1999 to 165 square kilometres in 2003 and fluctuated throughout subsequent reports.
Similar trends were noted in states like Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Meanwhile, West Bengal’s unclassified forest cover remained unchanged from 1995 to 2021. “There has been no explanation for these drastic shifts in ISFR publications,” she said.
Srivastava stressed that these inconsistencies obscure the true status of India’s forests, raising concerns about whether forests have been lost to encroachment, diverted for development or transferred to private entities.
At a separate event in Delhi in August 2024, Rajesh S, Indian Forest Service, inspector general of forests at the MoEFCC, assured this reporter that there was no delay in the publication of the ISFR and it would be released as scheduled. However, the scheduled release date in 2023 has since passed.
