Explanation:

The state of Rajasthan has recorded a negligible increase of 25sqkm forest area, according to India State of Forest Report (ISFR), 2021.

Out of the total geographical area of 3,42,239sqkm, the present forest cover is 16,655sqkm, which is 4.87%.

The forest cover in the state two years ago was 16,630sqkm.

In the previous report, the open forest was reduced from 12,210sqkm to 12,208sqkm.

In 2019, the state’s forest cover had seen marginal increase of 57.51sqkm compared to 2017, when the moderate forest cover area and open forest cover area declined, though the former has started to show improvement.

According to the report, while very dense forest (VDF) area remained unchanged from 2019 with 78sqkm, the moderately dense forest (MDF) witnessed a small increase from 4,342sqkm in 2019 to 4,369sqkm in 2021.

Experts claimed that while the survey report is robust in terms of data, it does not take into consideration few other parameters including the quality of the vegetation and biodiversity which means that even though the forest cover might not have increased considerably, it has improved in terms of quality.