According to the India State of Forest Report released in February 2018, what percentage of India’s total area comes under forest area?

Explanation

On 12 February 2018, the 15th India State of Forest Report, 2017 was released. According to ISFR-2017, the total forest cover in the country was 708,273 square kilometres, which constituted 21.54 percent of the total geographical area of the country. However, the combined forest cover and tree cover together was 802,088 square kilometres, which accounted for about 24.40 percent of the geographical area. However, the Bihar Public Service Commission has considered option (d) as the correct answer to this question, which is incorrect as per the question. According to the 2023 India State of Forest Report, the total Forest cover in the country is 715342.61 sq.km., which is 21.76 percent of the total Geographical area. The total forest and tree cover in the country is 827356.95 sq.km. which is 25.17 percent of the total geographical area.