The Government announced that India’s forest and tree cover has increased by 5, 081 sq km. While the total forest cover of the country has increased by 3, 775 sq km, the tree cover has gone up by 1, 306 sq km. According to the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2015, the total forest and tree cover is 79.42 million hectare, which is 24.16 percent of the total geographical area. The total carbon stock in the country’s forest is estimated to be 7, 044 million tones, an increase of 103 million tonnes, which is an increase of 1.48 in percentage terms over the previous assessments. The India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2015 states that the majority of the increase in forest cover has been observed in open forest category mainly outside forest areas, followed by Very Dense Forest. While Open Forest area has increased by 4, 744 sq km, which is 9.14 per cent of the geographical area, the area under Very Dense Forest has increased by 2, 404 sq kms, which is 2.61% of the geographical area. About 40 per cent forest cover is in 9 big patches of 10, 000 sq km and more. The increase in total forest cover also includes an increase in the mangrove cover.