Tezpur, Feb. 7 -- Union Minister Kirti Vardhan Singh's claim in the Lok Sabha that Assam boasts the highest forest cover in India has been challenged by official data revealing a starkly different reality.

While Assam does have significant forest cover, it also leads the nation in forest land encroachment and has experienced alarming deforestation rates.

The India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2023 shows Assam with 19,699.73 square kilometers of forest cover. However, the state lost 86.66 square kilometers of forest between 2021 and 2023 alone.

More significantly, the ISFR reveals that a staggering 213,253.91 hectares of Assam's forest land have been encroached upon - the highest in India. This is followed by Maharashtra (57,554.87 hec...