From correspondents in Delhi, India, 04:01 PM IST

Forests covered 21.02 percent of India's area, the latest state of the forest report showed here Monday. This is a marginal increase from the last report released in 2005.

However, high density forests covered only 2.54 percent of India's land mass, the report said. Moderately dense forests covered 9.71 percent while 8.77 percent was scrub.

'There is little scope to increase the area under forest,' Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has said.

The concentration, he said, would be on improving the quality of the tree cover in the existing forest area.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)