Examine the status of forest resources of India and its resultant impact on climate change.

The India State of Forest Report 2023 puts forest and tree cover at about 8.27 lakh sq km — 25.17 per cent of the geographical area, with forest cover alone at 21.76 per cent. This remains well short of the 33 per cent aspiration of the National Forest Policy, 1988.

Status of forest resources

• Cover rose by roughly 1,445 sq km over 2021, but much of the gain comes from plantations and tree cover outside forests rather than natural forests.
• Quality concerns persist: dense natural forests are degrading into open forest in places, and several north-eastern states — the country's richest biodiversity zone — recorded declines.
• Mangroves stand near 4,992 sq km, showing a marginal dip; forest carbon stock is estimated at about 7,285 million tonnes.
• Independent researchers also question the counting of orchards and plantations as forest, underlining the need for honest ecological accounting.

Impact on climate change

• Forests are India's principal carbon sink, central to the NDC pledge of an additional 2.5-3 billion tonnes of CO2-equivalent sink by 2030; expanding cover strengthens mitigation.
• Conversely, degradation, diversion for infrastructure and recurring forest fires turn forests into emission sources and erode the sink.
• Forests regulate microclimate, moisture recycling and river flows; their loss amplifies heat, erratic rainfall, floods and landslides — visible in Himalayan and Western Ghats disasters.

Way forward

• Shift focus from cover statistics to ecological quality: restore degraded natural forests under the Green India Mission and use CAMPA funds for genuine restoration.
• Promote agroforestry, secure community stewardship under the Forest Rights Act, and invest in fire prevention and early warning.

India's forests will either anchor its climate strategy or quietly undermine it; the difference lies in protecting natural forests, not merely counting trees.