India’s ranking in terms of total forest area has improved to ninth from tenth place according to the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2025 released by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization.

The country has maintained its third position in the world in terms of annual forest gain, the report said.

The assessment, released every five years, is based on data submitted by member countries and reviewed by the Food and Agriculture Organization.

Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said that the development is a “reason to rejoice for all Indians”.

India’s forest cover is around 72.73 million hectares, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.

In India, forest area is defined as “all lands of more than one hectare with a tree canopy density of at least 10%, irrespective of ownership, legal status or land use. This includes orchards, bamboo and palm plantations. This definition was put in place by the Forest Survey of India in 2001.

Ecologists have expressed concern that such a wide definition presents a misleading picture of the extent of forest cover in India.

Global Forest Watch, an independent watchdog, said last year that India lost 23,300 square kilometres of tree cover – slightly more than the entire state of Meghalaya – from 2000 to 2023. Recent images indicate that 95% of the tree cover loss in India occurred within natural forests between 2013 and 2023.

Also read: India’s definition of forest under scanner as watchdog contradicts claim that green cover increased

Global picture

Globally, forests cover 4.14 billion hectares, about one-third of the planet’s land area.

The annual rate of net forest loss has fallen to 4.12 million hectares in 2015-’25 from 10.7 million hectares in 1990-2000. This was the result of reduced deforestation in some countries and the expansion of forest areas in some others, the report by the Food and Agriculture Organization said.

In Asia, forest area has increased between 1990 and 2025, though the rate of expansion has slowed in the most recent decade.

Russia has the world’s largest forest area at 832.6 million hectares, followed by Brazil (486 million hectares), Canada (368.8 million hectares), the United States (308.9 million hectares) and China (227.1 million hectares), the report added.

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