As per India State of Forest Report 2021, which one of the following states is not among the top three with reference to maximum area under forest?
- (a)Arunachal Pradesh
- (b)Chhattisgarh
- (c)Madhya Pradesh
- (d)Maharashtra
Correct — D, Maharashtra. The India State of Forest Report 2021, released on 13 January 2022, ranks the states by the area under forest cover and the first three are Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, in that order. Odisha comes fourth and Maharashtra fifth, so Maharashtra is the state in the list that misses the top three. The distinction the question depends on is between area and proportion. Maharashtra is a large state with a large absolute forest area, but the states that top the area table are those with both size and heavy forest — Madhya Pradesh at about 77,000 sq km, Arunachal Pradesh at about 66,000, Chhattisgarh at about 56,000. Rank the same states by forest cover as a share of their own geographical area and the table changes completely: Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya lead, and Madhya Pradesh drops well down.
- (a)Arunachal Pradesh — Second on the area table in ISFR 2021 with about 66,000 sq km, and second on the percentage table as well. It belongs in the top three on either measure.
- (b)Chhattisgarh — Third by forest area in ISFR 2021, at about 56,000 sq km. It is comfortably inside the top three.
- (c)Madhya Pradesh — First by forest area, at about 77,000 sq km — the state the question's ranking begins with.
The Forest Survey of India at Dehradun has published the India State of Forest Report every two years since 1987. ISFR 2021, the seventeenth in the series, put India's forest cover at 7,13,789 sq km, or 21.71 per cent of the geographical area, and forest and tree cover together at 24.62 per cent — an increase of 2,261 sq km over the 2019 assessment. Forest cover is measured from satellite imagery and counts all land over one hectare with a tree canopy density above ten per cent, whatever its legal status or ownership, which is why the figure differs from the recorded forest area held in state revenue records.
Questions of this shape are decided by knowing which table is being asked for. Area and percentage give different top threes, and a candidate who has learnt only that Mizoram is India's most forested state will not find Mizoram in this list at all. The area ranking is stable across editions, which makes it worth memorising as a sequence: Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Maharashtra. The position has since moved in a way worth knowing. ISFR 2023, released on 21 December 2024, keeps Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh as the top three by forest cover, but when tree cover outside forests is added to forest cover, the top three become Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Maharashtra — so the same state that is the answer here would not be, on that combined measure.
- ISFR 2021 was released on 13 January 2022 and was the seventeenth report in the series, published by the Forest Survey of India, Dehradun.
- Top three states by forest area in ISFR 2021: Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh; Odisha is fourth and Maharashtra fifth.
- By forest cover as a percentage of their own area the leaders are Mizoram at 84.53 per cent, then Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya.
- India's forest cover in ISFR 2021 was 7,13,789 sq km or 21.71 per cent of the geographical area; forest and tree cover together came to 24.62 per cent.
- In ISFR 2023 the three largest states by forest and tree cover combined are Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Maharashtra.
- Answering an area question with the percentage table, or the reverse.
- Quoting figures from the wrong edition; ISFR 2021 and ISFR 2023 differ throughout.
- Confusing forest cover, which is measured from satellite images, with recorded forest area, which comes from revenue records.
As a ranking question on forest area or forest percentage by state, or as a statements item quoting national totals from a named edition of the report.
Consider the following States: 1. Chhattisgarh 2. Madhya Pradesh 3. Maharashtra 4. Odisha With reference to the States mentioned above, in terms of percentage of forest cover to the total area of State, which one of the following is the correct ascending order?
- (a) 2-3-1-4
- (b) 2-3-4-1
- (c) 3-2-4-1
- (d) 3-2-1-4
Answer(c) 3-2-4-1
The same four states ranked the other way. UPSC asked for the percentage order, in which Maharashtra comes last and Chhattisgarh first; CDS asks for the area order, in which Madhya Pradesh leads and Maharashtra falls outside the top three.
According to the Forest Survey Report, 2021, area-wise which one of the following States has the largest forest cover in India?
- (a) Odisha
- (b) Madhya Pradesh
- (c) Arunachal Pradesh
- (d) Chhattisgarh
Answer(b) Madhya Pradesh
The same edition and the same table. NDA asked for the top of the area ranking; CDS asked which of four states falls outside its top three, and the answer to one gives you the anchor for the other.
There is an increase in forest cover area of India between 2011 and 2021. However, there is a decrease in forest cover area of India during the same period in
- (a) very dense forest (canopy density of more than 70 percent)
- (b) moderately dense forest (canopy density between 40–70 percent)
- (c) open forest (canopy density between 10–20 percent)
- (d) Both (b) and (c)
Answer(b) moderately dense forest (canopy density between 40–70 percent)
Same report, one level deeper. The 2023 CDS item goes inside the national total to the canopy-density classes, which is the distinction that explains how total cover can rise while a class within it falls.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which state has the highest forest cover as a percentage of its own geographical area, according to the India State of Forest Report 2021?
- (a)Madhya Pradesh
- (b)Mizoram
- (c)Chhattisgarh
- (d)Odisha
Answer(b) Mizoram — 84.53 per cent of its area under forest cover, ahead of Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, though it is nowhere near the top by absolute area.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which organisation publishes the India State of Forest Report?
- (a)Forest Survey of India
- (b)Wildlife Institute of India
- (c)Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education
- (d)Botanical Survey of India
Answer(a) Forest Survey of India — based at Dehradun, publishing the report every two years since 1987.