India’s forests are turning greener, but a new study warns that their health is quietly slipping away. Researchers from IIT Kharagpur have uncovered a worrying trend: despite the country’s role in global carbon sequestration through forest greening, photosynthetic efficiency in these vital ecosystems is dropping fast. This could spell trouble for climate change efforts and local communities.
The research, led by Professor Jayanarayanan Kuttippurath and Rahul Kashyap from the Centre for Ocean, River, Atmosphere and Land Sciences at IIT Kharagpur, highlights three key issues. First, photosynthetic efficiency in Indian forests fell by 5% from 2010-2019 compared to the 2000-2009 period. The hardest-hit areas include pristine forests in the Eastern Himalaya, Western Ghats, and Indo-Gangetic Plain.
Second, these forests show low resilience to climate challenges like warming, drying conditions, land and atmospheric aridity, and wildfires. Only 16% of them maintain high integrity amid these threats. “Global warming is drying out soil moisture and cranking up air temperatures, which hurts forest health the most,” explains Prof Kuttippurath. He adds that natural disasters like wildfires and landslides play a role, but human activities—deforestation, mining, and development projects—make things worse.
Finally, the study points out the bigger picture: degrading forests threaten biodiversity, timber production, and the livelihoods of millions of forest dwellers. It could disrupt India’s economy, from timber markets to planting efforts, and push species toward extinction. In fragile ecological zones, this decline might trigger more extreme weather events down the line, warns Kashyap, the lead author.
Why does this matter? Healthy forests are key to India’s net zero emissions goal by 2070. The researchers call for urgent action: protect indigenous forests, adopt sustainable management practices, launch science-backed afforestation drives, slash carbon emissions, and invest in advanced carbon capture tech. These steps can help build resilience and secure a greener future for India.
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