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206 Economic Survey 2021-22

6.15 Amongst states, Madhya Pradesh (11 per cent of India’s total forest cover) had the largest
forest cover in India in 2021, followed by Arunachal Pradesh (9 per cent), Chhattisgarh (8 per
cent), Odisha (7 per cent) and Maharashtra (7 per cent). Figure 10 shows the composition of
very dense forest, moderately dense forest and open forest in these five states as well as the per
cent of states’ geographical area under forest cover in 2021.

Figure 10: Top Five States in India by Forest Cover, 2021

90 90
77 79
80 66 80
Forest Cover ('000 sq Km) 60 34 37 21 30 32 41 16 56 21 24 52 21 21 51 60 % of Geographical Area
70
70
50
50
40
34
40
30
30
20
10
10
0 7 25 15 7 7 9 17 20
0
Madhya Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh Chhattisgarh Odisha Maharashtra
Very Dense Forest Moderately Dense Forest
Open Forest Total Forest Cover
Total Forest Cover as % of State's Geographical Area
Source: India State of Forest Report 2021
Note: Very dense forest: All lands with tree canopy density of 70 per cent and above); Moderately dense
forest: All lands with tree canopy density between 40-70 per cent; and Open forest: All lands with tree canopy
density between 10-40 per cent
6.16 Mizoram (85 per cent), Arunachal Pradesh (79 per cent), Meghalaya (76 per cent), Manipur
(74 per cent) and Nagaland (74 per cent) were the top five states in terms of highest per cent of
forest cover w.r.t. total geographical area of the state in 2021 (Figure 11).

Figure 11: Top Five States by per cent of State Geographical Area under Forest Cover, 2021

86 84.53
Forest Cover as % of State's Geographical Area 80 79.33 76.00 74.34 73.90
84
82

78
76
74
72
70
68
Mizoram Arunachal Meghalaya Manipur Nagaland
Pradesh
Source: India State of Forest Report 2021

6.17 Figure 12 shows the top five states in terms of very dense forest in 2021. Arunachal Pradesh
accounted for 21 per cent of India’s very dense forest in 2021, followed by Maharashtra (9 per
cent), Odisha (7 per cent), Chhatisgarh (7 per cent) and Madhya Pradesh (7 per cent).