- A high-power committee constituted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has recommended that forest surveys should explicitly demarcate trees grown in forests from those grown in plantations and private lands. Currently, both within forests and outside forests are counted together to estimate the portion of India’s geographical area covered by forest.
- Forest Surveys are conducted every two years to assess forest cover in India using satellite data. The main objective is presentation of the information on forest resources of the country at state and district level and to prepare forest cover maps.
- The survey is carried out by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) and published in a report titled “India State of Forest Report”. The first State of Forest Report was brought out in 1987. The India State of Forest Report 2017 is the latest one- the 15th in the series of reports. According to ISFR 2017, the total forest and tree cover is 24.39% of the geographical area of India-a 0.21% rise in the area under forest between 2015 and 2017
- Forest Survey of India (FSI) is an organisation under the Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India Its principal mandate is to conduct survey and assessment of forest resources in the country. It was established as an organization called Pre- Investment Survey of Forest Resources (PISFR) in 1965.
