The world’s forests have shrunk by three per cent since 1990 – an area equivalent to the size of South Africa – and India is among the countries who are losing their forest cover faster than others, researchers have warned. The green cover is being more rapidly lost in some of the developing and poorest countries including India, Vietnam and Ghana. Total global forest area has declined by three percent between 1990 and 2015 from 4,128 million hectares to 3,999 million hectares – a loss of 129 million hectares. Significantly, loss of natural forested area was double the global total at six percent, while tropical forests took the hardest hit with a loss rate of 10 percent.
India losing green cover faster than ever
