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India has succeeded in reducing deforestation to some extent through an effective Forest Conservation Act and large-scale afforestation programmes, compared with other forest-rich tropical countries such as Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Without the Forest Conservation Act and its reasonably effective implementation, India would have lost significant extent of forest area. According to the latest biennial State of Forest Report of the Forest Survey of India (FSI), area under forests has been increasing. Given the definition of forest used by FSI, which is generally consistent with international norms, it is not clear what percentage of increase in forest area is due to changes in natural forests (generally rich in biodiversity), what percentage is due to fast growing commercial plantations (of poplar, eucalyptus, etc.,) and what percentage is contributed by horticultural or fruit orchards of mango, coconut, cashew, areca nut, coffee and urban parks.