Explanation:

All lands which are more than 1 hectare in area and with a Canopy density of more than 10% irrespective of the ownership and legal status is called Forest Cover. Also it does not make any distinction whether the forest is natural or manmade forest, government or private, recorded or not recorded. It includes bamboo, orchards, palm etc.
The degraded forest lands which have a Canopy density of less than 10% are called Scrubs. The Lands with Canopy density of 10-40% are called Open Forests. The Land with forest cover having a canopy density of 40-70% is called the Moderately Dense Forest (MDF) The Lands with forest cover having a canopy density of 70% and more are called Very Dense Forests (VDF).
Out of the total forest cover, the maximum share is of Moderate Dense Forests, followed by Open Forests. The very dense forests in India are in just around 2.5% of total geographical area of the country.
State having highest forest cover as % of its area is Mizoram (88.93 per cent) followed by Lakshadweep.
The mangrove cover is on consistent rise due to conservation efforts in Sunderbans, Bhitarkanika and other patches.
October – December is the best season. The reflectance from the forests is dependent on the crown foliage and its chlorophyll content. Due to seasonal variability of the tree phenology over the year, season of satellite data acquisition is of utmost importance for forest cover assessment.
 Deciduous forests allow more reflectance from the ground surface during leafless period thus making their own detection and classification difficult. Hence, data of the spring-summer season is not suitable for interpretation of such forest types. During rainy season, the situation is compounded due to non availability of cloud-free data and mixing of agricultural and other green covers with forest cover due to similarity in their spectral reflectance. Taking these limitations into consideration, satellite data of the period October to December is considered to be the most suitable for forest cover mapping of the entire country. However, in cases where cloud free data is not available for this period, data of January to March is procured.