India’s Environment:
Forests, Climate & Water
State-wise forest and tree cover, afforestation, rainfall, heat and cold waves, groundwater extraction, disaster-relief spending and SDG scores, brought together from official Government of India statistics.
More forest overall, less in the North-East
National forest cover grew 11.6% from 1987 to 2023, to 7,15,343 km². But six north-eastern States (Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura and Meghalaya) together lost 3,814 km² between 2015 and 2023.
Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana are drawing down
In 2024 Punjab extracted 157% of its annual extractable groundwater, Rajasthan 150% and Haryana 136%. Five States/UTs are over-exploited, even though the national figure is a moderate 60.5%.
Heat waves up, cold waves down
Reporting States averaged 10.5 heat-wave days in 2024, close to the 2012 high of 10.6, with Punjab and Uttarakhand at 22 days each. Cold-wave days fell from 6.2 in 2012 to 1.7 in 2024.
Relief bills have risen four-fold
State spending on natural-calamity relief rose from ₹13,692 crore in 2011-12 to a peak of ₹60,136 crore in 2020-21. Maharashtra alone accounts for ₹68,686 crore, about a fifth of all actual spending from 2011-12 to 2022-23.