As per the India State of Forest Report 2021, which one of the following Himalayan states has the highest percentage of its geographical area under forest?
- (a)Arunachal Pradesh
- (b)Himachal Pradesh
- (c)Sikkim
- (d)Uttarakhand
Correct — A, Arunachal Pradesh. In the India State of Forest Report 2021 (Forest Survey of India), Arunachal Pradesh has about 66,400 sq km of forest cover, roughly 79% of its geographical area — the highest share among the four Himalayan states listed, and one of the highest in the whole country. Its vast, sparsely populated eastern-Himalayan slopes carry dense sub-tropical and temperate forest, which lifts its percentage far above the western-Himalayan states.
- (b)Himachal Pradesh — Himachal has large alpine, snow and cold-desert tracts (as in Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur) that carry little or no forest, so forest cover is only about 27-28% of its area — the lowest of the four.
- (c)Sikkim — Sikkim is heavily forested at about 47% of its area, but that is well below Arunachal Pradesh's ~79%. This is the option the raw store wrongly picked.
- (d)Uttarakhand — Uttarakhand's forest cover is about 45% of its geographical area — high, but again far short of Arunachal Pradesh's share.
The India State of Forest Report (ISFR) is the biennial assessment of India's forest and tree cover by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), Dehradun; ISFR 2021 was released in January 2022. 'Forest cover as a percentage of geographical area' measures how much of a state's land is under forest, which is why heavily wooded, thinly-populated hill states rank high.
The question fixes the year (ISFR 2021) and restricts you to four Himalayan states, so it is really asking which of them is most densely forested. Arunachal Pradesh, with about four-fifths of its area under forest, is the clear leader; the western-Himalayan states (Himachal, Uttarakhand) lose forest share to high alpine and snow-covered land. Note that Mizoram tops the national list by percentage, but it is not among the options here.
- ISFR 2021 was released by the Forest Survey of India in January 2022.
- Arunachal Pradesh: about 79% of its geographical area under forest — highest of the four.
- Sikkim ~47% and Uttarakhand ~45% follow; Himachal Pradesh is lowest at ~28%.
- By percentage of area, Mizoram is the most forested state nationally (about 84%).
- Confusing highest forest cover by AREA (Madhya Pradesh) with highest by PERCENTAGE (Mizoram nationally; Arunachal among these options).
- Assuming Uttarakhand or Himachal, the famous 'forest' hill states, must top a percentage measure — alpine and snow land pulls their share down.
Forest-report questions pin a specific ISFR year and then ask for a rank — learn the top states by both area and percentage for that edition.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
As per ISFR 2021, which state has the largest forest cover by AREA (not percentage)?
- (a)Arunachal Pradesh
- (b)Madhya Pradesh
- (c)Chhattisgarh
- (d)Odisha
Answer(b) Madhya Pradesh — it has the largest forest area, while by percentage the leader is Mizoram.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The India State of Forest Report is published by
- (a)Forest Survey of India
- (b)National Remote Sensing Centre
- (c)Wildlife Institute of India
- (d)Botanical Survey of India
Answer(a) Forest Survey of India — the FSI, Dehradun, brings out the biennial ISFR.