MoSPI Releases 8th Edition of “Environment Accounting on Forest-2025” at CoCSSO in Chandigarh.

In September 2025, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) released the 8th edition of its environmental-accounts report titled “Environment Accounting on Forest-2025”, the first dedicated report on forest accounting, during the 29th Conference of Central and State Statistical Organizations (CoCSSO) held in Chandigarh.

      - The report highlights that India’s forest cover increased by 17,444.61 sq. km between 2010-11 and 2021-22, reaching 7.15 lakh sq. km, equivalent to 21.76% of the country’s geographical area.

      - As per the Physical Asset Account, forest growth was highest in Kerala with an addition of 4,137 sq. km, followed by Karnataka with 3,122 sq. km and Tamil Nadu with 2,606 sq. km during the period 2010-11 to 2021-22.

Main Point :-   (i) The Extent Account of the report records a net increase of 3,356 sq. km in India’s forest extent between 2013 and 2023, mainly attributed to reclassification of land and boundary adjustments.

      (ii) Recorded Forest Area (RFA) also showed growth in several states: Uttarakhand’s RFA increased by 6.3%, Odisha’s by 1.97%, and Jharkhand’s by 1.9%, with the overall RFA of India improving marginally from 23.48% to 23.59%.

(iii) This comprehensive report is MoSPI’s first initiative solely focused on forest accounting, making it a key reference for environmental statistics and policy planning in India.