The protests exploded on the deforestation controversy of the Telangana government related to the Kancha-Gachibowli country dispute that involves the University of Hyderabad, which leads the matter to the Supreme Court. But how does this incident fits in the broader image of the loss of forests throughout India? The data has a conflictive narrative: according to Global Forest Watch, a private global data on forests, India lost around 402 thousand hectares (kha) of wet primary forest between 2003 and 2023. In contrast, the data of the forests of India, under the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Climate Change, statements that the coverage of total forests of the India forest grew 5% in the same period. For more details, see this video.
Posted on April 19, 2025