Released by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and published by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) in 2021, the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) is a biennial report which collects scientific data “for periodic assessment of forest cover, forest inventory and inventory of trees outside forest (TOF)”. It is also aimed at providing “valuable inputs for planning, policy formulation and evidence based decision making both at the national and state level”.

Some of the key findings in this 17th edition include: The total forest and tree cover in India is 24.62 percent of the geographical area of the country, there has been an increase of barely 0.28 percent of forest and tree cover at the national level, and an increase in mangroves cover in the country by merely 0.34 percent when compared to the previous assessment carried out in 2019. These findings should ideally inform policies, especially of urbanisation and industrialisation. 

India has also submitted climate action commitments called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide under the United Nation Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC). Other new initiatives mentioned in the report include updating methodologies to study TOF, a working plan to evaluate status and impacts of forest resources and management practices, and a new grid-based algorithm for detecting changes in forest vegetation.