NEW DELHI: India's forests are not as healthy as the government claims they are, experts who have questioned the government's definition of a forest have said. The experts, who have raised the issue over the methodology said the government has been indulging in jugglery to paint a rosy picture. According to the definition of ‘forest cover' used by the Forest Survey of India since 2001, if tree canopy covers more than 10%of a 1-hectare plot, it is classified as a forest. For purposes of its survey FSI divided the country's land into 1-hectare plots (100 meters by 100 meters) and looks at their satellite images. “It's an expansive definition. Under it, tea and coffee plantations, orchards, parks and timber plantations, among others, qualify as forests,” Harini Nagendra, a researcher studying how forests in India are changing said. The experts contention that even public parks, which have trees at their fringes and cricket grounds with trees at the periphery, would get classified as ‘forests'. But experts believe that this in the strict sense should not be a forest. “Native forests-as opposed to urban trees and plantations-are complex, natural eco-systems that evolved over millions of years. They are intricately woven into our lives,” he said. The Forest Survey of India had recently released its biennial report on forest cover, in which it declared that India's forests had grown by 1,128 sq km, or 0.16%, in the last two years and well on track to achieve the target of 33%. India currently has 692,000 sq km of forests making up 23% of area, according to FSI figures. India's forests are home to a huge biodiversity and native species of flora and fauna as well as 140 million scheduled tribals, mainly located in central India whose livelihoods revolve around resources from the forests.
