CDS (I) 2023 General Knowledge · Question 107 of 120

Correct — B, moderately dense forest (canopy density between 40–70 percent). Across the decade from the 2011 assessment to the 2021 assessment India's total forest cover rose, and so did two of its three density classes — very dense forest climbed to about 99,779 sq km and open forest to about 307,120 sq km, out of a 2021 total of roughly 713,789 sq km. The class that fell is the middle one: moderately dense forest, which stood near 309,000 sq km in 2011 and was recorded at about 306,890 sq km in 2021. That direction of change is the point of the question, because it is what a rising headline figure hides — good forest thinning into open forest at the same time as some open forest matures or new plantations are counted, so the total goes up while the middle band shrinks.

• (a)very dense forest (canopy density of more than 70 percent) — Very dense forest increased over the period, reaching about 99,779 sq km in the 2021 assessment. It is the class that gained most in proportional terms, not the one that lost.
• (c)open forest (canopy density between 10–20 percent) — Open forest also increased, to about 307,120 sq km in 2021. Note too that the printed density band is not the official one — the Forest Survey of India defines open forest as canopy density of 10 per cent and above but below 40 per cent.
• (d)Both (b) and (c) — This would be right only if open forest had shrunk as well, and it did not. Only the moderately dense class declined.

The Forest Survey of India reports forest cover by canopy density in three classes: very dense forest at 70 per cent canopy and above, moderately dense forest from 40 per cent up to 70 per cent, and open forest from 10 per cent up to 40 per cent. Anything below 10 per cent is scrub and is not counted as forest cover. Because the classes are defined by canopy alone and not by ownership or legal status, plantations and tree cover on private land enter the totals too, which is one reason the headline number can rise while natural forest quality falls.

The stem is doing something more interesting than testing a number: it is asking you to read behind a good-news total. A printed slip is worth flagging — option (c) gives open forest as 10 to 20 per cent canopy, whereas the Forest Survey's own definition is 10 per cent to below 40 per cent. That is the booklet's wording, and it does not change the answer, since open forest increased on either definition. If you have to reconstruct the answer under pressure, reason from the mechanism: degradation moves land down from moderately dense to open, while afforestation and regrowth add at the bottom and, more slowly, at the top. The middle band is the one that loses on both sides, which is why it is the class that falls.

• The Forest Survey of India classes are very dense forest at 70 per cent canopy and above, moderately dense forest from 40 to below 70 per cent, and open forest from 10 to below 40 per cent.
• India's total forest cover in the 2021 assessment was about 713,789 sq km.
• Very dense forest stood at about 99,779 sq km and open forest at about 307,120 sq km in 2021, both higher than a decade earlier.
• Moderately dense forest fell from roughly 309,000 sq km in 2011 to about 306,890 sq km in 2021.
• Land with canopy density below 10 per cent is recorded as scrub and is not counted within forest cover.

• Reading a rising total as proof that forest quality improved.
• Taking a printed canopy band at face value — the official open-forest range is 10 to below 40 per cent.
• Confusing forest cover, which is measured from canopy, with recorded forest area, which is a legal category.

As a which-class-fell question like this one, as a State ranking by forest cover, or as a definitional item on the canopy-density bands.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  As defined by the Forest Survey of India, 'open forest' is land with tree canopy density of

  • (a)less than 10 per cent
  • (b)10 per cent and above but less than 40 per cent
  • (c)40 per cent and above but less than 70 per cent
  • (d)70 per cent and above

  Answer(b) 10 per cent and above but less than 40 per cent — below 10 per cent the land is classed as scrub and is not counted as forest cover.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In the India State of Forest Report assessments, land with tree canopy density below 10 per cent is recorded as

  • (a)Open forest
  • (b)Scrub
  • (c)Moderately dense forest
  • (d)Tree cover outside forest

  Answer(b) Scrub — it falls outside the three forest-cover density classes altogether.