India’s Fragmented Forests Lay Bare Policy Gaps

Not a week goes by without another chunk of pristine Indian wilderness coming under the intrusive human lens, be it for mining, tourism, or infrastructure development, resulting in the fragmentation of biodiversity-rich areas. 

And yet, official data paints a rosy picture. The India State of Forest Report (ISFR), which aids in policy formulation, shows that forest cover increased from 155 sq km in 2021 to 2023. 

How is this possible?

The discrepancy can be traced to flawed definitions of what constitutes forest cover, and what does not, say experts.

What we are seeing is not always a reduction in numbers, but a decline in quality. Dense forests are gradually degrading, and that change is not fully captured in official assessments.

— said Prabhakaran Veeraarasu, an environmental engineer of the decades-old Tamil Nadu-based non-profit Poovulagin Nanbargal, told The Secretariat

Counting Trees Over Forest Quality 

According to the 2023 ISFR, which was conducted by the Forest Survey of India, the total forest and tree cover of the country is 8,27,356.95 square km, which is 25.17% of India’s geographical area. 

But India’s forest accounting system is built on a straightforward principle: measure canopy cover. The FSI classifies forests by how dense the canopy is, offering a consistent way to track change over time. 

This method can flatten important distinctions. A monoculture plantation and a biodiverse natural forest can both qualify under similar categories. Even though their ecological roles are totally different. 

“Forest cover data based on canopy alone does not reflect the actual quality of forests,” said Prabhakaran. “Plantations are being counted as forests, but forests take decades to mature; even then, they do not function like natural forests.” 

Ignoring Wetlands, Grasslands

So flawed is the official view that it does not even acknowledge wetlands and grasslands as unique ecological entities, even though these are now universally acknowledged as huge carbon sinks and crucial to combatting climate change. 

Forest cover data does not reflect ground reality. India is not just losing forests. It is losing different types of ecosystems, including primary forests, grasslands, and wetlands. These ecosystems are often ignored in mainstream forest discussions and not properly accounted for in policy or data.

— Vijay Dhasmana, a rewilding expert who has been restoring degraded landscapes in the Aravallis, told The Secretariat

Grasslands are estimated to cover 24% of India’s geographical area. Between 2005 and 2015 alone, the total area under grasslands came down from 18 million hectares to 12.3 million hectares, according to the Observer Research Foundation (ORF).

Destruction of grasslands means losing critically endangered species such as the Great Indian Bustard. Mainly found in the Thar desert of Rajasthan, and parts of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka, only around 150-200 species are left today, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

"In India, grasslands are the least protected ecosystems. Less than 1% of grasslands in the country lie in the protected area network. To secure legal protection, these areas have to be notified as Protected Areas under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 or notified as Protected or Reserve Forest under the Indian Forest Act,1927," says an ORF report released in 2022.  

“As grasslands have spontaneous natural vegetative growth like forestland, their conversion must be restricted under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.  However, there has been little effort on the part of the government to protect grasslands against conversions.”

Commercial Tree Cover

Researchers argue that such classifications risk blurring the thin line between genuine forest regeneration and commercial tree cover. 

Data shared by Prabhakaran shows that over 82,800 hectares of forest land were diverted for non-forestry purposes between 2016 and 2021. 

"In addition, approvals granted by the National Board for Wildlife in 2020 and 2021 alone allowed the diversion of more than 4,100 hectares from protected areas for over 200 non-forestry projects", he said.

States such as Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Telangana and Gujarat account for a significant share of this land-use change, pointing to a broader pattern of development expanding into forested landscapes.

How Forests Get Fragmented 

The damage does not always come from clearing the entire green cover. More often, it unfolds quietly, through the gradual breaking up of once-continuous landscapes. 

Fragmentation is the splitting of large, forested areas into smaller, isolated patches, altering how these ecosystems function. It affects how animals move, how plants regenerate, and how ecological systems stay connected. 

“Policies must focus on maintaining connectivity between forests, as fragmentation is breaking ecosystems and affecting the long-term survival of species,” said Dhasmana. “Maintaining ecological corridors is critical.”

Roads, rail lines, and power corridors carve through dense stretches, leaving behind pockets that may still appear green but are no longer part of a unified habitat. Over time, these edges become vulnerable, species decline, interactions weaken, and resilience drops. The result is subtle but significant, a forest that still exists in fragments, yet no longer works as one.

In the Aarey Forest of Mumbai, the push to build metro infrastructure has meant clearing thousands of trees in what many consider one of the city’s last green buffers. 

In north India, the Aravalli Range has seen a slower, more diffused kind of decline. Mining, construction, invasive vegetation, and the expansion of settlements have steadily eroded these hills, weakening their role as a natural barrier against desertification and pollution.

The Mumbai–Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor and the Delhi–Mumbai Expressway are often cited for the scale on which land is being cleared and reshaped.

Compensatory Afforestation

Often, those who propose projects in forests offer compensatory reforestation. For example, Rajasthan’s state-owned electricity producer last week reportedly offered afforestation in forest land to compensate for the 4.48 lakh trees it proposes to cut in the Hasdeo-Arand forest of Chhattisgarh. 

Even in the case of the Great Nicobar Project - which involves building a transhipment hub, a township, an airport and a power plant for an expected cost of ₹100,000 crore – the official number of trees to be felled runs into over 7 lakhs, though environmentalists say the actual figure may be way higher. In exchange, compensatory afforestation has been proposed in degraded forest areas in Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, which are not only thousands of kilometres away but also ecologically starkly different.  

Experts say afforestation cannot make up for forests that have grown over thousands of years. “Cutting trees and planting more elsewhere does not recreate ecosystems. Planting thousands of trees does not equal a forest. Policy should focus on protecting existing forests, not compensating after destruction,” Prabhakaran said.

“Poor plantation practices have even led to ecological issues like landslides,” he said.

Ecosystem Level Thinking

Conservationists say there is a critical need to rethink the way forests are defined and degraded landscapes restored. “We need to move beyond tree planting and clearly define what ecological restoration means,” said Dhasmana, credited with rewilding sites like the Aravalli Biodiversity Park in Gurgaon, the Rao Jodha Desert Rock Park in Jodhpur, and the Kishanbagh Roee in Jaipur. 

He said forest policy must prioritise linking forest areas together. “Current approaches are too simplistic. Real conservation requires ecosystem-level thinking. Restoration must consider ecosystem structure, biodiversity, and connectivity.”

Prabhakaran said a newly planted area cannot replace a natural, intact forest ecosystem. “Even if you plant thousands of trees, it does not recreate what is lost.”