MPPSC 2025 Prelims Paper-I · Question 76 of 100

Correct — B, Madhya Pradesh. The India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2021, published by the Forest Survey of India and released in January 2022, recorded Madhya Pradesh's forest cover as 77,493 sq km — the largest forest cover of any state or Union Territory, and about 25.1% of MP's own geographical area. Note what the superlative is measured on: MP leads on area of forest, not on the share of the state that is forested. On percentage the leaders are the north-eastern states and Chhattisgarh, and MP is nowhere near the top.

• (a)Maharashtra — Maharashtra does carry a large forest area — about 50,798 sq km in ISFR 2021 — but that is fifth in the country and roughly two-thirds of Madhya Pradesh's figure. In proportional terms it is only about a sixth of the state.
• (c)Odisha — Odisha's forest cover, about 52,156 sq km, is fourth largest. Odisha is far ahead of MP as a proportion of the state — roughly a third of Odisha is under forest — but the question asks which state has the largest forest cover, which is an area comparison.
• (d)Andhra Pradesh — Andhra Pradesh's forest cover sits well outside the top five by area. It was, however, credited in ISFR 2021 with the single largest increase in forest cover over the previous assessment (about 647 sq km) — an 'increase' headline that is easy to misread as a 'largest' headline.

In the ISFR, 'forest cover' is a satellite-measured, land-use-blind category: all land more than one hectare in extent with a tree canopy density above 10%, irrespective of ownership, legal status or species. That is why orchards, bamboo and plantations count. It is deliberately different from 'recorded forest area', which is the legal category carried in government records. The Forest Survey of India (Dehradun, under MoEFCC) publishes the assessment every two years, with canopy-density classes Very Dense Forest (>70%), Moderately Dense Forest (40-70%) and Open Forest (10-40%); land below 10% density is scrub and is not counted as forest.

Every forest-cover question turns on one word: area or percentage. By area the ranking is Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Maharashtra. By share of geographical area it is Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland. Fix that pair of lists and both versions of the question become answerable — and so does the trap version that gives you a state with the biggest increase rather than the biggest cover.

• ISFR 2021 (Forest Survey of India, released January 2022): India's forest cover 7,13,789 sq km = 21.71% of the geographical area; forest and tree cover together 8,09,537 sq km = 24.62%
• Largest forest cover by area: Madhya Pradesh 77,493 sq km, then Arunachal Pradesh 66,431, Chhattisgarh 55,717, Odisha 52,156, Maharashtra 50,798
• Largest forest cover as a share of geographical area: Mizoram 84.53%, followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur and Nagaland; Madhya Pradesh is about 25.1%
• Definition: land one hectare or more with canopy density above 10%, whatever the ownership or species; classes are Very Dense (>70%), Moderately Dense (40-70%), Open (10-40%)
• Biggest increase in forest cover in ISFR 2021: Andhra Pradesh (about 647 sq km), Telangana (632) and Odisha (537)

• Largest forest cover by area is Madhya Pradesh; largest as a percentage of the state is Mizoram — read which one is being asked
• Confusing forest cover (satellite-assessed) with recorded forest area (a legal record category)
• Assuming the physically largest state must have the most forest — Rajasthan is the largest state by area but has modest forest cover

MPPSC asks the ISFR superlative straight — largest or least, by area or by percentage, for states and for MP's own districts. UPSC prefers ordering and definition: rank these four states by percentage of forest cover, or what exactly counts as forest cover.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  According to the India State of Forest Report 2021, which state has the highest forest cover as a percentage of its geographical area?

  • (a)Mizoram
  • (b)Madhya Pradesh
  • (c)Chhattisgarh
  • (d)Odisha

  Answer(a) Mizoram — about 84.5% of the state; Madhya Pradesh leads only in absolute forest area.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In the India State of Forest Report, land is counted as 'forest cover' if it is at least one hectare in extent and has a tree canopy density of more than:

  • (a)5 percent
  • (b)10 percent
  • (c)25 percent
  • (d)40 percent

  Answer(b) 10 percent — below that the patch is classed as scrub, not forest.