TL;DR Despite a 17,444.6 sq km (22.50%) increase in India’s forest cover from 2010–11 to 2021–22, forest fires are rapidly degrading forest quality, a trend highlighted by the National Statistics Office’s Environmental Accounting on Forests 2025. Between November 2023 and June 2024, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Telangana together lost over 13,000 sq km to fires. Further, four of the most fire-affected states are also among the most “extremely fire-prone”.
Context
Every time the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) releases new numbers, popular discourse focuses on a single question:
“Has India gained, or lost forest cover this year?”
But the government’s new Environmental Accounting on Forests 2025 takes a different approach. Instead of focusing only on total forest area, the report measures forest quality, tracking fire risk, fragmentation, biodiversity, regeneration and carbon stock as condition indicators. Forest fires are treated as a key signal of degradation and not just a disaster event.
The report classifies fire incidence alongside:
- carbon storage
- biodiversity
- fragmentation
- regeneration capacity
- and ecosystem services
as core indicators of forest condition and health. This shift is crucial: fires are now seen as a systemic stress indicator, not just isolated seasonal events.
Who Compiles This Data?
The forest cover and fire data are sourced from the Forest Survey of India’s India State of Forest Report (ISFR) published by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC). These are the official national datasets used for monitoring forest resources, evaluating forest policy and planning for long-term conservation.
Where can I download Clean & Structured Data about the Forest Fires in India?
Clean, structured, and ready-to-use datasets related to forest fires by year, season, duration, and severity can be downloaded from Dataful.
Key Insights
India Is Losing Thousands of Hectares to Fires Every Season
Forest fires are now eroding India’s forest cover at a scale that was largely unseen until recent years. In the 2023–24 fire season alone, Andhra Pradesh lost over 5,200 sq km, Maharashtra over 4,000 sq km, and Telangana nearly 4,000 sq km of forests. These losses are more striking when viewed against the size of these states’ forest areas. Madhya Pradesh, for example, holds close to 94,689 sq km of forest, which is India’s largest, yet thousands of square kilometres were still lost within months.
With India’s total recorded forest area at 775,377 sq km, the recent season points to a structural trend: fires are striking core forest belts and degrading biomass, habitats and carbon storage faster than forest cover can recover.
The States Losing the Most Forest are the Most Fire-Prone
The states experiencing the highest fire-related forest loss are also the ones most structurally exposed to fire. Telangana and Andhra Pradesh lost over 14% of their recorded forest areas this season, the highest in the country. Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh each lost between 6% and 7%, and Karnataka and Tamil Nadu between 5% and 6%.
In 2023, the same states topped the list of those with the largest share of forest land in the “extreme fire-prone” category. Chhattisgarh had more than 2,200 sq km of forest classified as extremely vulnerable, while Telangana and Maharashtra each had over 1,500 sq km exposed to the highest fire risk. These are also states with major forest belts; Telangana has 27,688 sq km of forests, Andhra Pradesh 37,258 sq km, and Maharashtra more than 61,000 sq km.
The overlap is clear: the forests most at risk are also the forests burning the fastest.
Why Does It Matter?
Forests damaged by fire do not recover quickly. The government accounting framework warns that fire:
- reduces biomass,
- reduces carbon storage,
- weakens biodiversity,
- pushes dense forest into open forest category (a major downgrade),
- increases fragmentation.
The Environmental Accounting report lists fires as a direct stress factor on forest conditions, and data show that this stress is now widespread and recent and not historic.
India’s forest story has moved beyond the old debate of gain vs loss. The real question today is:
“Can India’s forests survive the fires?”
Forest health is not just about how much forest we have, but how fast we are losing it to fire.
Key Numbers (in square kilometres)
- Top 5 States with the Highest Forest Area (2023 in Sq. Km)
Madhya Pradesh: 94,689; Maharashtra: 61,952; Odisha: 61,204; Chhattisgarh: 59,816; Arunachal Pradesh: 51,540 - Top 5 States with Highest Forest Area Burned (Nov 2023–June 2024 in Sq. Km)
Andhra Pradesh: 5,287; Maharashtra: 4,095; Telangana: 3,983; Chhattisgarh: 3,812; Bihar: 683 - Top 5 States with Highest Forest Burn % (Nov 2023–June 2024)
Telangana: 14.39; Andhra Pradesh: 14.19; Bihar: 9.17; Maharashtra: 6.61; Chhattisgarh: 6.37
Note: Featured image created using Gemini Nano Banana Pro
