India lost 3,48,000 hectares of humid primary forest (5.4 per cent) from 2002 to 2024, accounting for 15 per cent of its total tree cover loss during the same period, it stated.
The country lost 16,900 hectares of humid primary forest in 2022, 18,300 hectares in 2021, 17,000 hectares in 2020 and 14,500 hectares in 2019, the data showed.
The dataset defines primary forests as “mature natural humid tropical forest cover that has not been completely cleared and regrown in recent history”.
GFW researchers classify Landsat satellite images into primary forest data, using a separate algorithm for each region. PTI GVS DIV DIV