Forest Vegetation Map of India

India is blessed with a variety of flora and fauna. Our natural vegetation is a gift from nature. They develop naturally due to the changing climate. A wide range of natural vegetation grows in India due to its diverse geographical and climatic conditions.

India is a very big country and it houses different types of forests. These forests include protected forests or reserved forests. Prior to the independence of the country, the forests of the country were protected under the Indian Forest Act, of 1927.

Following the freedom of the country, the Indian Government has preserved the status of the prevailing protected and reserved forests of the country.

The protected forests of India can be broadly categorized into two types - undemarcated protected forests and demarcated protected forests. and this categorization has been made on whether the boundaries of the forest have been delineated by an official declaration.

The abundant and varied flora and fauna of India are housed in 13 biosphere reserves, 89 national parks, and more than 400 wildlife sanctuaries located throughout the nation.

The different types of forests of India are classified below:

• Tropical rainforests
• Temperate deciduous forests
• Himalayan subtropical pine forests
• Indian tidal or mangrove forests
• Indian dry deciduous forests
• Humid deciduous forests of the •Eastern Highlands
• Mountain Forests
• Tidal forests
• Dry evergreen forests of the East •Deccan Region
• Monsoon forests

Here are some brief descriptions of different types of forests:

Tropical Evergreen forests

Tropical evergreen rain forests are found in areas where rainfall exceeds 200 cm. They are commonly found in Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Assam, Nagaland, Western Ghats, foothills of Himalayas, Andaman Islands and northeastern regions. They are also found in the hills of Khasi and Jayanti. The trees in this area grow rapidly.

Temperate deciduous forests

This type of forest is found in cold climates. Coniferous trees are found in temperate forests. Deodar, pine, etc. trees are found in these types of forests. Trees of temperate forests are broad-leafed. Snow does not stay on the leaves of these trees. For this reason, the texture of the leaves of these trees is different. Alpine is one type of temperate forest.

Dry Deciduous Forests

These forests grow in areas where rainfall is between 50 cm and 100 cm. They are mainly seen in the central Deccan plateau, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and parts of south-east Rajasthan.

Mountain Forests

Variation is found in mountain forests along the slopes of the mountain. Evergreen trees like teak and bamboo grow in abundance from an altitude of 1500 meters to the foothills of the Himalayas.

On higher slopes, temperate coniferous trees such as pine and oak trees grow. At the height of the Himalayas, rhododendrons and junipers are found. In comparison to these vegetated areas, alpine meadows are visible up to the snowfield.

Tidal or Mangrove Forests

Mangroves or tidal forests grow along the coast and the edges of deltas, such as the Cauvery, Krishna, Mahanadi, Godavari, and Ganges deltas. In West Bengal, these forests are known as 'Sunderbans'. Sundari is the biggest tree in these forests.

The total forest cover in India is 21.71% of the geographical area. The tree cover is nearly 2.91% of the geographical area. Thus, the total forest and tree cover is 24.62% geographical area of the country.

Approximately 20% of the overall forest cover of India is located in the state of Madhya Pradesh. States like Maharashtra, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Arunachal Pradesh also house a considerable volume of forests.

The second biggest land use in the country after farming is forests. Forests encompass 67.83 million hectares of area in India which represents 20.64% of the nation's geographical territory, varying from the arid zone forests to Himalayan temperate forests.


*Includes Jammu & Kashmir area outside LOC that is under illegal occupation of Pakistan and China.

Abstract of Forest Cover in tribal districts								(Area in sq km)
State/UTs	No. of Tribal District	Geographical Area	2017 Assessment				% of GA	Change	Scrub
			VDF	MDF	OF	TOTAL
Andhra Pradesh	5	44849	1510	5512	4396	11418	25.46	572	3078
Arunachal Pradesh	16	83743	20721	30955	15288	66964	79.96	-190	247
Assam	19	49489	1513	3562	6757	11832	23.91	260	69
Chhattisgarh	11	92645	6509	21902	11539	39950	43.12	-12	288
Gujarat	9	49885	324	2971	3671	6966	13.96	3	608
Himachal Pradesh	3	26764	869	1283	1107	3259	12.18	18	116
Jharkhand	17	58677	1869	7254	8296	17419	29.69	22	522
Karnataka	5	26054	2596	7437	3246	13279	50.97	156	109
Kerala	9	27207	1237	6756	6827	14820	54.47	523	22
Madhya Pradesh*	24	152132	5937	22096	19381	47414	31.17	118	2352
Maharashtra	12	144233	7229	11695	11613	30537	21.17	-105	2177
Manipur	9	22327	908	6510	9928	17346	77.69	263	1111
Meghalaya	7	22429	453	9386	7307	17146	76.45	-116	505
Mizoram	8	21081	131	5861	12194	18186	86.27	-531	0
Nagaland	8	16579	1279	4587	6623	12489	75.33	-450	503
Orissa	12	86091	5114	14275	14817	34206	39.73	415	2655
Rajasthan	5	29601	0	2156	3118	5274	17.82	24	634
Sikkim	4	7096	1081	1575	688	3344	47.13	-9	307
Tamil Nadu	6	25607	853	2771	2076	5700	22.26	129	181
Telangana	3	42217	1187	6890	4962	13039	30.89	-830	397
Tripura	4	10486	656	5246	1824	7726	73.68	-164	15
Uttar Pradesh	1	7680	805	158	311	1274	16.59	-24	4
West Bengal	12	69403	2980	3707	7908	14595	21.03	22	136
A & N Islands	3	8249	5678	684	380	6742	81.73	-9	1
Dadra & Nagar Haveli	1	491	0	80	127	207	42.16	1	5
Darnan & Diu	1	72	0	2.04	8.92	10.96	15.22	0.85	0.27
Lakshadweep	1	30	0	17.04	10.06	27.1	90.34	0.04	0
Grand Total	215	1125117	71439	185328.08	164402.98	421170.06	37.43	86.89	16042.27

*Forest Area Within Tribal Districts in Madhya Pradesh was inadvertantly shown as 77462 sq km in IFSR 2015 which may be read as 42191 sq km.

Forest Cover in North -Eastern States										(Area in sq km)
State	Geographical Area	2017 Assessment								Change	Scrub
		VDF	%VDF	MDF	%MDF	OF	%OF	TOTAL	% Forest to GA
Arunachal Pradesh	83743	20721	30.94	30955	46.23	15288	22.83	66964	79.96	-190	247
Assam	78438	2797	9.95	10192	36.26	15116	53.78	28105	35.83	567	217
Manipur	22327	908	5.23	6510	37.53	9928	57.24	17346	77.69	263	1111
Meghalaya	22429	453	2.64	9386	54.74	7307	42.62	17146	76.45	-116	505
Mizoram	21081	131	0.72	5861	32.23	12194	67.05	18186	86.27	-531	0
Nagaland	16579	1279	10.24	4587	36.73	6623	53.03	12489	75.33	-450	503
Sikkim	7096	1081	32.33	1575	47.1	688	20.57	3344	47.13	-9	307
Tripura	10486	656	8.49	5246	67.9	1824	23.61	7726	73.68	-164	15
Total	262179	28026		74312		68968	40.26	171306	65.34	-630	2905

Forest Cover in Altitude Zones							(Area in sq km)
Altitude Zone	Goe.Area	VDF	MDF	Open	Total Forest Cover	Percent Total FC	Percent of GA of zone	Change w.r.t IFSR 2015 (updated)
0-500m	2329321	39049	150794	185146	374989	52.94	16.1	7087
500-1000m	541747	25493	95178	77787	198458	28.02	36.63	276
1000-2000m	117835	15267	35979	25056	76302	10.77	64.75	-217
2000-3000m	56891	14740	18569	7218	40527	5.72	71.24	-193
3000-4000m	62405	3555	7554	6100	17209	2.43	27.58	-76
Above 4000m	179270	54	244	490	788	0.11	0.44	-99
TOTAL	3287469	98158	308318	301797	708273	99.99	21.54	6778

State/ UT wise extent of water bodies				(Area in sq km)
S.NO	State	Extent of water bodies 2005	Extent of water bodies 2015	Change
1	Andhra Pradesh	626	943	317
2	Arunachal Pradesh	582	387	-195
3	Assam	387	474	87
4	Bihar	52	44	-8
5	Chhattisgarh	850	927	77
6	Delhi	3.77	4.32	0.55
7	Goa	76	84	8
8	Gujarat	2203	2631	428
9	Haryana	21	16	-5
10	HImachal Pradesh	402	455	53
11	Jammu & Kashmir	267	287	20
12	Jharkhand	147	211	64
13	Karnataka	1493	1620	127
14	Kerala	302	373	71
15	Madhya Pradesh	1930	2319	389
16	Maharashtra	1116	1548	432
17	Manipur	32	58	26
18	Meghalaya	105	142	37
19	Mizoram	72	124	52
20	Nagaland	39.43	62.8	23.37
21	Odisha	312	369	57
22	Punjab	30	37	7
23	Rajasthan	414	454	40
24	Sikkim	10	12	2
25	Tamil Nadu	453	732	279
26	Telangana	871	1228	357
27	Tripura	77	113	36
28	Uttar Pradesh	1220	1018	-202
29	Uttrakhand	310	355	45
30	West Bengal	82	104	22
31	A & N Islands	2.84	2.41	-0.43
32	Chandigarh	1.45	1.49	0.04
33	Dadra & Nagar Haveli	17.34	17.44	0.1
34	Daman & Diu	2.08	2.71	0.63
35	Lakshadweep	0	0	0
36	Puduchery	0	0	0
	TOTAL	14508.91	17156.17	2647.26

Error matrix
Classification classes	Ground Truth(based on field inventory data)						User's Accuracy(%)
	VDF	MDF	OF	SCRUB	NF	TOTAL
VDF	200	5	9	2	2	218	91.74
MDF	11	1075	60	10	18	1174	91.57
OF	15	56	1237	7	29	1344	92.04
SCRUB	0	4	5	86	2	97	88.66
NF	17	42	103	9	1148	1319	87.04
Total	243	1182	1414	114	1199	4152
Producer's Accuracy(%)	82.3	90.95	87.48	75.44	95.75
Overall Accuracy	90.00%
Overall Kappa Statistics	0.86

Simplified Error matrix
Classification classes	Ground Truth(based on field inventory data)			User's Accuracy(%)
	Forest	Non-Forest	Total
Forest	2668	68	2736	97.51
Non-Forest	171	1245	1416	87.92
Total	2839	1313	4152
Producer's Accuracy(%)	93.98	94.82
Overall Accuracy	94.24%
Overall Kappa Statistics	0.87

National Level Forest Cover Information in different patch sizes
SI.NO	Patch Size Range in(sq.km)		No. of Patches	Forest Cover	Percentage
1	>=0.01	< =1.0	727380	54082	7.64
2	>1.0	< =10	16444	43639	6.16
3	>10	< =100	2183	58052	8.2
4	>100	< =500	257	51298	7.24
5	>500	< =1000	57	39628	5.59
6	>1000	< =5000	42	85407	12.06
7	>5000	< =10000	14	90028	12.71
8	>10000		9	286139	40.4
	TOTAL		746386	708273	100

Last Updated on : May 10, 2022