Last year, the FSI’s report had shown, as compared to 2017, the country recorded a 0.56% improvement in its forest cover.

On Wednesday, the National Statistical Office (NSO) released a report which says the built-up area in the country had increased by 2.39% between 2011-12 and 2015-16, but forest area had declined by 1.09%.

During the same period, the area which come under inland wetlands had dropped by 6.9%. While 14.32% dip was recorded in barren or waste land which includes the Rann of Kutch.

However, an increase in the country’s forest cover as shown in the Forest Survey of India’s (FSI) reports is at odds with the NSO’s analysis. The report also ‘revealed the largest decline in vegetation in case of deciduous and evergreen forests.

NSO utilised the data sets to conduct an analysis on land use trends for its latest report.

But, land use change matrix of NSO showed 1.09% decline in forest area, as compared to a 0.5% increase in forest area shown in the FSI reports between 2013 and 2015.

The report remains constant on the state of various environmental assets such as forests, land, water bodies, grasslands, carbon stocks, biodiversity etc. and their impact on the country’s economy.

The land use and land change data sets for 2005-06, 2011-12 and 2015-16 has been produced Under Natural Resources Census (NRC) project by the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC).

An official from the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) on condition of anonymity said that this difference could be because of the difference in the way the FSI and the NRSC define forests.

The land is considered with a tree canopy cover of more than 10% and an area of over 0.5 hectares (ha) by the NRSC which excludes other predominant land uses such as agriculture and certain monocultures, which the FSI doesn’t.

Last year, Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister for Environment, forest and climate change said that India was one of the few countries to record increasing forest cover while citing the FSI’s data.

May be because of diversion to built-up area, agriculture and wasteland, the NSO land use change matrix shows a reduction in forest area.

Forest ecosystem services have also been taken into account by the NSO’s report such as timber, non-timber forest resources and carbon retention. The reports also suggested these economic activities are equivalent to 2.58% of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

According to the analysis by the NSO of the FSI’s data, during 2017-18, from forest ecosystem services, the highest economic value per ha was recorded in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, followed by Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.