Unveiling India's forest cover: Geospatial perspectives on structural connectivity transitions across states

Forest structural connectivity denotes the physical linkage among forest landscape elements, and is crucial for sustaining ecological, hydrological, and socio-economic benefits. However, forest fragmentation increasingly threatens forest connectivity, particularly in emerging economies like India, which face intense development pressures and resource constraints. This study presents the first comprehensive analysis of forest structural connectivity dynamics across Indian states using free and open-source geospatial tools. It uses a remote sensing-derived global land use land cover product to map forest cover in 2015 and 2019 at 100 m resolution, and employs morphological image processing to derive seven connectivity classes with distinct ecological attributes. It novelly incorporates gross forest gain and loss estimates alongside net changes. Key findings include: i) India lost 18 sq.km. of forest for every 1 sq.km. gained; ii) Two states accounted for half of the nationwide gross forest loss (1032.89 sq.km.); iii) Four states accounted for half of the nationwide gross forest gain (56.3 sq.km.); iv) No state saw a net increase in forest cover; v) Forest core and bridge areas decreased, while islet area increased; vi) Cores were the most resilient to deforestation, and islets were the least resilient; vii) Nearly half of newly added forests were islets, while only 6% were cores, and viii) Six states reported higher rate of core-to-non-forest transition than the national average. Our findings contribute towards conservation of Indian forest ecosystems, and facilitate regular monitoring and resource-efficient augmentation of forest connectivity to support forest sustainability initiatives globally.