Answer: 9th
Notes: India moved up to 9th position in the world for total forest area and retained 3rd spot for annual forest gains, according to the United Nations’ Global Forest Resource Assessment (GFRA) 2025. Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav credited government conservation policies and state-led plantation efforts for this achievement. GFRA, released by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), analysed 35 years of data (1990-2025) from 236 countries. India has 72.74 million hectares of forests, about 2% of global forest cover. Russia leads with 832.63 million hectares, followed by Brazil, Canada, and the US. India added approximately 191,000 hectares per year between 2015-2025, behind China (1.69 million) and Russia (942,000).
