Which state has the lowest forest cover in India?

Among the states, Haryana has the lowest share at 3.65% of its area, with Punjab close behind at 3.67%, according to ISFR 2023. Haryana also has the smallest forest cover of any state by area, 1,614.26 km². Among union territories, Ladakh has the lowest share, at 1.36% of its digitised boundary area.

Largest Forest in India and Forest Cover by State

Q: Which is the largest forest in India?

It depends on the question. By state, Madhya Pradesh has the most forest cover, 77,073.44 km² as per ISFR 2023. FSI does not rank single forests by size. The Sundarbans is the famous single forest: a PIB statement from December 2023 calls it the largest contiguous mangrove forest in the world. That phrase describes the Sundarbans as a whole.

Q: Which state has the highest forest cover percentage in India?

Mizoram, at 85.34% of its area, according to the ISFR 2023 state chapters. Arunachal Pradesh (78.67%) and Meghalaya (75.65%) come next. If union territories are included, Lakshadweep tops the list at 91.33%, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands follow Mizoram at 81.62%.

Q: What is the total forest area of India?

ISFR 2023 Table 1.3 gives India's recorded forest area as 7,75,377 km², or 23.59% of the geographical area. This is land listed as forest in government records. Forest cover measured from satellites is a different figure: 7,15,342.61 km², or 21.76% of the country.

Q: What is the difference between forest area and forest cover?

Forest area, or recorded forest area, is a legal record of land notified as forest, whether or not trees grow on it. Forest cover is what satellites actually see: any patch of one hectare or more with tree canopy density of at least 10%, whoever owns the land. ISFR 2023 reports both.

Which is the largest forest in India? It depends on what you measure. By state, Madhya Pradesh has the most forest cover: 77,073.44 km² as per ISFR 2023. As a single forest, the Sundarbans stands out, because a December 2023 PIB statement calls it the world’s largest contiguous mangrove forest.

This page sits under our hub on types of forests in India, which explains the five NCERT forest groups. Here the focus is size: which state holds the most forest, which has the highest share, and how “forest area” differs from “forest cover”. Every figure comes from the Forest Survey of India’s India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2023.

What is the largest forest in India?

Students ask this question in three different ways. Each has its own answer.

1. By state. According to ISFR 2023, Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest cover of any state or union territory, at 77,073.44 km². That is about a quarter (25.00%) of the state’s area.

2. As a single forest. The FSI reports forest cover by state and district. It does not publish a ranking of individual named forests. The best official superlative belongs to the Sundarbans of West Bengal. In a statement published by PIB on 9 December 2023, India’s Environment Minister said the Sundarbans “offers the largest contiguous mangrove forest in the world”. This describes the Sundarbans as a whole, not only India’s share of it. Our page on the largest mangrove forest in India gives its ISFR mangrove figures, and the Sundarbans mangrove forest guide covers the place itself.

3. By forest type. Among the 16 forest type groups in ISFR 2023 Table 5.2, tropical dry deciduous forest covers the most land, 2,80,580 km². These are monsoon forests that drop their leaves in the dry season.

Which state has the largest forest cover in India?

Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest cover by area. The five leaders below come from ISFR 2023 Volume I, Table 2.4. Their percentages come from the state chapters in Volume II.

Rank	State	Forest cover (km²)	% of state area
1	Madhya Pradesh	77,073.44	25.00
2	Arunachal Pradesh	65,881.57	78.67
3	Chhattisgarh	55,811.75	41.28
4	Odisha	52,433.56	33.67
5	Maharashtra	50,858.53	16.53

In ISFR 2023, a big total does not mean a high share. Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are among India’s largest states, so even a large forest is a modest part of their land. Arunachal Pradesh is much smaller, yet trees cover more than three-quarters of it. Added together, these five states hold about 3.02 lakh km², or roughly 42% of India’s forest cover (our sum of the ISFR 2023 figures).

Which state has the highest forest cover percentage in India?

Ranked by share of their own area, the north-eastern hill states lead. As per the ISFR 2023 state chapters, Mizoram is first among states at 85.34%. Next come Arunachal Pradesh (78.67%), Meghalaya (75.65%), Manipur (74.29%), Nagaland (73.72%) and Tripura (72.33%).

Two island union territories rank even higher in ISFR 2023. Lakshadweep has 91.33% forest cover, the highest share anywhere in India, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands have 81.62%. Volume I adds a regional view: forest and tree cover in the North Eastern region together come to 67% of its geographical area.

At the other end of the scale, ISFR 2023 shows that Haryana (3.65%), Punjab (3.67%) and Rajasthan (4.84%) have the lowest shares among states. Ladakh’s figure of 1.36% (measured on its digitised area) is the lowest of all. The rainforests of the north-east and the islands are described in our guide to tropical evergreen forests in India.

Forest cover of India state-wise (ISFR 2023)

The table lists every state and union territory in the order ISFR uses. Areas are from ISFR 2023 Volume I, Table 2.4. Percentages are copied from each state chapter in Volume II, where FSI measures them against the area calculated by the Survey of India. For Jammu and Kashmir and for Ladakh, ISFR measures the share against the digitised boundary area instead.

State/UT	Forest cover (km²)	% of area
Andhra Pradesh	30,084.96	18.46
Arunachal Pradesh	65,881.57	78.67
Assam	28,313.55	36.10
Bihar	7,532.45	8.00
Chhattisgarh	55,811.75	41.28
Delhi	195.28	13.17
Goa	2,265.72	61.20
Gujarat	15,016.64	7.65
Haryana	1,614.26	3.65
Himachal Pradesh	15,580.35	27.99
Jharkhand	23,765.78	29.81
Karnataka	39,254.27	20.47
Kerala	22,059.36	56.78
Madhya Pradesh	77,073.44	25.00
Maharashtra	50,858.53	16.53
Manipur	16,585.46	74.29
Meghalaya	16,966.84	75.65
Mizoram	17,990.46	85.34
Nagaland	12,222.47	73.72
Odisha	52,433.56	33.67
Punjab	1,846.09	3.67
Rajasthan	16,548.21	4.84
Sikkim	3,358.40	47.33
Tamil Nadu	26,450.22	20.34
Telangana	21,179.04	18.89
Tripura	7,584.77	72.33
Uttar Pradesh	15,045.80	6.24
Uttarakhand	24,303.83	45.44
West Bengal	16,832.33	18.96
Andaman and Nicobar Islands	6,732.92	81.62
Chandigarh	25.00	21.93
Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu	225.62	37.48
Jammu and Kashmir	21,346.39	39.07
Ladakh	2,285.92	1.36
Lakshadweep	27.06	91.33
Puducherry	44.31	9.04
India	7,15,342.61	21.76

What is the total forest area of India?

The answer depends on which official figure you mean. ISFR 2023 gives two national totals, and they are not the same thing.

Recorded forest area: 7,75,377 km², which is 23.59% of India’s geographical area (ISFR 2023 Table 1.3).
Forest cover: 7,15,342.61 km², which is 21.76% of the geographical area (ISFR 2023 Table 2.3).

ISFR 2023 counts 1,12,014.34 km² (3.41%) of tree cover on top of that. With it, forest and tree cover reaches 8,27,356.95 km², or 25.17% of India.

As per ISFR 2023, the state that leads on recorded forest area is again Madhya Pradesh, with 94,689 km² on its forest records. By share, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands lead at 86.93% of their area, followed by Sikkim at 82.31%.

What is the difference between forest area and forest cover?

This is the most common point of confusion, so learn the two definitions from ISFR 2023.

Recorded forest area (RFA), often just called forest area, is all land recorded as “forest” in government records. Most of it is Reserved Forest or Protected Forest under the Indian Forest Act, 1927. State governments supply these records to the FSI. ISFR notes that a recorded forest may or may not carry trees. It can also include pastures, deserts, wetlands, riverbeds, snow-clad land and patches with canopy below 10%.

Forest cover is mapped from satellite images. In ISFR 2023, it means all land of one hectare or more with a tree canopy density of 10% or more. Canopy density is the share of ground shaded by tree crowns when seen from above. Ownership and legal status do not matter, and orchards, bamboo and palm count too.

Feature	Recorded forest area	Forest cover
What it is	A legal and administrative record	Trees actually seen on satellite images
Who provides it	State and UT forest departments	Forest Survey of India’s mapping
Must it have trees?	No	Yes, canopy density of at least 10%
Includes orchards and private tree land?	Only if recorded as forest	Yes, if the patch is 1 ha or more
India total (ISFR 2023)	7,75,377 km² (23.59%)	7,15,342.61 km² (21.76%)

The two overlap but do not match. ISFR 2023 Table 2.4 shows 5,20,365.32 km² of forest cover inside recorded forests or their stand-in boundaries. Another 1,94,977.29 km² lies outside them. Where a state has not supplied digital forest boundaries, FSI uses “green wash” areas instead. These are the green-shaded forest zones on Survey of India topographic maps.

Lakshadweep shows the gap clearly. ISFR 2023 states that the UT has no recorded forest area at all, yet its forest cover is 91.33%. The definition explains how: forest cover counts tree-clad land whatever its legal status.

Is forest cover increasing or decreasing in India?

The latest change is small. According to ISFR 2023, India’s forest cover rose by a net 156.41 km² over the previous assessment.

The gains and losses in ISFR 2023 were spread unevenly. Mizoram gained the most, 241.73 km², followed by Gujarat (180.07 km²) and Odisha (151.89 km²). Madhya Pradesh, the state with the largest forest cover, showed the biggest loss at 371.54 km². Andhra Pradesh lost 138.66 km² and Telangana 100.42 km².

So the largest forest state is not automatically the one gaining most. Why forests matter so much for wildlife and people is covered in our guide to the importance of forests.