satellites were deployed for remote sensing of real forest cover. Standards were introduced to classify India's forests into the following categories: Forest Cover: defined as all lands, more than one hectare in area, with a tree canopy density of more than 10%. Such lands may or may not be statutorily notified as forest area which is the area recorded as a forest in the Government records. It is also referred to as "Recorded Forest Area". Forest Cover includes all cultivated tree plantations or orchards with an area of more than one hectare. Very Dense Forest: All lands, with a forest cover with a canopy density of 70% and above. It covers nearly 3.04% of the country's area in 2021. Moderately Dense Forest: All lands, with a forest cover with a canopy density of 40-70 %. It covers nearly 9.33% of the country's area in 2021. Open Forest: All lands, with forest cover with a canopy density of 10 to 40%. It covers nearly 9.34% of the country's area in 2021. Scrub Cover: All lands, generally in and around forest areas, having bushes and or poor tree growth, chiefly small or stunted trees with canopy density less than 10%.It covers nearly 1.42% of the country's area in 2021. Non-Forest Land: defined as lands without any forest cover. It covers nearly 76.87% of the country's area in 2021. Tree Cover: Land with tree patches (blocks and linear) outside the recorded forest area exclusive of forest cover and less than the minimum mappable area of 1 hectare. It covers nearly 2.91% of the country's area in 2021 which is part of the Non-forest land. Mangrove Cover: Mangrove forest is a salt tolerant forest ecosystem found mainly in tropical and sub-tropical coastal and/or inter-tidal regions. Mangrove cover is the area covered under mangrove vegetation as interpreted digitally from remote sensing data. It is a part of forest cover and is also classified into three classes viz. very dense, moderately dense, and open. Trees Outside Forests: Trees growing outside Recorded Forest Areas The first satellite recorded forest coverage data for India became available in 1987. India and the United States cooperated in 2001, using Landsat MSS with a spatial resolution of 80 meters, to get accurate forest distribution data. India thereafter switched to digital images and advanced satellites with 23 meters resolution and software processing of images to get more refined data on forest quantity