India is a vast country with a rich biological diversity. Forest is the second-largest land use in India after agriculture. Roughly, 275 million rural people in India depend on forests for at least part of their subsistence and livelihood (World Bank, 2006). As per the India State of Forest Report (FSI, 2017), the forest cover of the country stood at 708,273 km2, while it was 701,495 km2 in 2015 updated assessment (FSI, 2017), recording an increase of 6778 km2 within two years. The National Forest Policy of India envisages 33% of its geographical area under forest and tree cover. Figure 1.1 provides India’s forest cover over successive assessments. The total forest and tree cover of the country is 24.4% of its geographical area.
