Environmentalists question India’s definition of "forest"

17/9/2024 6:37

        India's environmental court is investigating whether the country’s natural forests are in steep decline, despite claims from the government that the country’s green cover has expanded dramatically over the last two decades.
        
        At stake is progress on India’s pledge to drastically increase the size of its forested land to help it achieve net zero emissions by 2070 – and potentially bank on its trees in a future carbon trading market.
        
        The National Green Tribunal (NGT) opened a case in May following reports that India has lost 23,000 square km of tree cover so far this century.
        
        That figure is from the Global Forest Watch (GFW), an independent watchdog that publishes real-time data on the world’s forests from satellite images. Recent images indicate that 95% of the tree cover loss in India occurred within natural forests between 2013 and 2023.s