According to India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2021, which of these districts of Madhya Pradesh has forest cover less than 10 percent (% of the geographical area of the district) ?

Question

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Correct — C, Bhind. Bhind lies in the Chambal ravine (beehad) belt of northern Madhya Pradesh: a landscape of gullied badlands and intensively cropped alluvium, where the tree-bearing land is mostly scrub rather than forest. In the Forest Survey of India's district table for the previous cycle (ISFR 2019) Bhind carried just 106.75 sq km of forest cover in a geographical area of 4,459 sq km — 2.39% — against 412.91 sq km of scrub, one of the largest scrub figures in the State. ISFR 2021 likewise keeps Bhind below the 10% line, while the other three districts sit comfortably above it.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Well above 10%. FSI's district table for the preceding cycle put Ashoknagar at 689.04 sq km of forest cover in 4,674 sq km — about 14.7% of its geographical area.  (b) The tempting trap: Morena shares the same Chambal ravine country as Bhind, so it feels equally barren. But its forest cover was 740.17 sq km in 4,989 sq km — roughly 14.8% on FSI's district table (ISFR 2019 cycle) — comfortably over the 10% mark.  (d) The most wooded of the four: about 1,329.74 (ISFR 2019 district table) sq km of forest cover in a geographical area of 6,390 sq km, near 21% — nowhere close to under 10%.

Concept: FSI counts as 'forest cover' every patch of land of one hectare or more with a tree canopy density of 10% or more — whatever its ownership or legal status. That is a satellite-measured physical fact, and it is different from 'recorded forest area', the legally notified forest of the State (about 94,689 sq km in Madhya Pradesh). ISFR reports forest cover State-wise and district-wise, both in absolute sq km and as a percentage of geographical area, and the two rankings do not match: a district can be large and still thinly wooded.

State PCS 2025 Q11 — Madhya Pradesh GK PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2025 Q11 — Madhya Pradesh GK PYQ with Answer