Nature · Sub-pillar 8.4

Land, forests and biodiversity

Protecting soil health, forests, wildlife, animals, coasts, oceans and the ecosystems that sustain them.

What is land, forests and biodiversity?

Land, forests and biodiversity is sub-pillar 8.4 of the 47 BH framework for a developed Bharat by 2047, the fourth of five sub-pillars under the Nature pillar. It asks about the protection of soil, forests, wildlife, animals, coasts and oceans, and of the ecosystems they depend on.

Why it matters for 2047

India holds a sixth of humanity on a fortieth of the world's land, and shares that land with three-quarters of the world's wild tigers, the largest population of Asian elephants and one of the richest collections of plants and animals on earth. No other country has to reconcile so many people with so much nature in so little space. How it does so is a test with no precedent.

Soil is the quietest asset and the most easily lost. Nearly a third of India's land is degraded, and the farmland that feeds the country is losing the organic matter that makes it fertile. A developed Bharat that could not feed itself from its own soil would not be developed for long.

Forests, wetlands, mangroves and coasts are the country's natural infrastructure: they hold water, cool cities, buffer storms and store carbon. India has done better than most developing countries at keeping its forest cover from shrinking. Whether that cover is dense, natural and connected, or thin, planted and fragmented, is the harder question.

Where India stands

  • 25.17%

    of India's land, 8,27,357 sq km, was under forest and tree cover in 2023, up 1,445 sq km since 2021; forest cover alone was 21.76%. Mangroves fell by 7.43 sq km to 4,992 sq km, and the largest losses of forest were in Madhya Pradesh (612 sq km) and Karnataka (459 sq km), according to the India State of Forest Report.[1]

  • 29.7%

    of India's land, 97.85 million hectares, was degraded in 2018-19, up from 28.76% in 2003-05, with desertification spreading in 28 of 31 states and union territories, according to the ISRO Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas; India has pledged to restore 26 million hectares by 2030.[2]

  • 3,682

    wild tigers was the 2022 estimate (range 3,167 to 3,925), about three-quarters of the world's tigers, growing 6.1% a year; the same assessment found 35% of tiger reserves needing urgent protection, according to the Wildlife Institute of India.[3]

  • 96

    Ramsar wetlands of international importance had India designated by the end of 2025, the most in Asia, with 11 added that year; protected areas rose to 1,134 from 745 in 2014, and the cheetah population reintroduced since 2022 reached 30, according to the environment ministry.[4]

India has held and slightly grown its forest and tree cover, nearly tripled its tiger population since 2006, and extended legal protection to more wetlands and landscapes than ever, while most tropical countries have lost forest. [1][3][4] Forest carbon stock is rising. [1]

The quality of the land is slipping even as the headline cover holds. Nearly a third of the country is degraded and the share is still growing; mangroves are shrinking; dense natural forest is being lost in central and southern India while plantations and tree cover outside forests make up the numbers; and a third of tiger reserves are under pressure. [1][2][3] India does not publish a regular national count of threatened species, a soil health index or a coral reef assessment, so three of the sub-pillar's intended measures cannot yet be reported.

A note on the numbers: the forest report counts any land with over 10% canopy as forest, including plantations and orchards, so it measures tree cover more than ecosystem health, and its figures are debated by ecologists; the land degradation atlas is a satellite assessment from 2018-19 and the next edition is awaited; tiger numbers are a modelled estimate with a wide range; Ramsar sites and protected areas measure designation, not condition. 47 BH will add soil organic carbon from the Soil Health Card data, species on the IUCN Red List and coral and mangrove health when consistent national figures are available.

On the 47 BH report card

Every 15 August, 47 BH reports how far India has come on each sub-pillar. For this sub-pillar, the headline indicators are:

  • Forest and tree cover, dense forest and mangrove cover (India State of Forest Report, Forest Survey of India).
  • Share of land degraded (ISRO Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas) and soil organic carbon (Soil Health Card data, to be sourced).
  • Tiger and other flagship species estimates, and species on the IUCN Red List (Wildlife Institute of India; IUCN).
  • Protected areas, Ramsar wetlands and coral reef health (MoEFCC; to be sourced for corals).

Two lenses on land, forests and biodiversity

City and village

47 BH asks whether the city that paves its wetlands and the village that grazes its commons bare are both using up the natural capital that 2047 will need. Cities lose their lakes and tree cover to construction; rural India loses its soil and forest edge to overuse. Both are counted in the same national totals, which hide the difference.

Learn, avoid, protect

Learn
What can India learn from countries that restored degraded land at scale by paying farmers for it, that measured forest quality and not only area, and that gave local communities a stake in the forests and fisheries they live beside?
Avoid
Which mistakes should it avoid, such as counting plantations as forests, protecting tigers while the corridors between reserves are built over, or treating soil as a free input until the harvests fall?
Protect
What of its own should it protect, such as the sacred groves, community forests and village commons that conserved nature before any law did, the reverence for rivers, trees and animals in its traditions, and the forest-dwelling communities whose knowledge of these landscapes is irreplaceable?

What this sub-pillar does not cover

Each topic has one home in the framework. These related topics sit elsewhere:

Questions about land, forests and biodiversity

How much of India is forest?

Forest and tree cover was 25.17% of the country, 8,27,357 sq km, in 2023, up 1,445 sq km since 2021; forest cover alone was 21.76%, according to the India State of Forest Report 2023. The report counts any land with over 10% canopy, including plantations. [1]

How much of India's land is degraded?

29.7%, or 97.85 million hectares, in 2018-19, up from 28.76% in 2003-05, according to ISRO's Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas; India has pledged to restore 26 million hectares by 2030. [2]

How many tigers does India have?

An estimated 3,682 in 2022, with a range of 3,167 to 3,925, about three-quarters of the world's wild tigers and growing 6.1% a year, according to the Wildlife Institute of India's assessment; 35% of reserves were found to need urgent protection. [3]

How much of India is protected?

1,134 protected areas in 2025, up from 745 in 2014, and 96 Ramsar wetlands of international importance, the most in Asia, according to the environment ministry's year-end review. [4]

Why are land and forests a development question?

Because a sixth of humanity lives on them, eats from them and shares them with more wild nature than almost any other country keeps. A developed Bharat that lost its soil, its forests and its tigers would have traded its inheritance for its income.

Sources

  1. Forest Survey of India, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, "India State of Forest Report 2023", December 2024; figures as summarised by Shankar IAS Parliament. Report: fsi.nic.in. https://www.shankariasparliament.com/current-affairs/india-state-of-forest-report-2023
  2. Space Applications Centre, ISRO, "Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas of India", 2021 (data for 2018-19); figures as summarised by Drishti IAS, 21 August 2021. https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/land-degradation-and-desertification-in-india/print_manually
  3. Wildlife Institute of India and National Tiger Conservation Authority, "Status of Tigers, Co-predators and Prey in India, 2022", released 29 July 2023, as reported by News On AIR. https://newsonair.gov.in/indias-tiger-population-estimates-to-3925-with-an-annual-growth-rate-of-6-1-per-annum-reveals-a-report-released-by-mos-ashwini-kumar
  4. Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, "Year-End Review 2025", Press Information Bureau; as summarised by Drishti IAS, 5 January 2026. https://www.drishtiias.com/current-affairs-news-analysis-editorials/news-analysis/05-01-2026/print/manual

47 BH cites every figure so that it can be checked. If you find an error, it will be corrected openly and the date below will change.

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