NEW DELHI: India's forest cover continues to hold steady at 21 per cent of the country's geographical area despite pressure from increasing population urbanisation and industrial use , and increased demand for cattle grazing, according to a government survey.While total forest cover remains stable, there has been an increase of nearly 3 per cent in open forest area, which has the lowest tree canopy density. The government plans to " harvest forests " in these areas and in degraded forests which are classified as scrub The total forest cover has increased by a little less than 1 per cent between 2011 and 2013, according to the India State of the Forest Report 2013, a biennial report prepared by the Forest Survey of India The total area under forest cover now stands at 697,888 sq km, or 21.23 per cent of the geographical area, compared to 692,027 sq km in 2011. Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar , who released the report on Tuesday, said the 8 per cent degraded forests in India present many possibilities in a country that imports wood."So in areas with degraded forests, we can harvest forests — in the total area we could earmark a portion, say 20 per cent, for livelihood use of the local people and the remaining 80 per cent area could be for harvesting forests," he said. "This would have the benefit of creating jobs as well as increasing the forest cover."The minister declined to give any details of the plan, citing the ongoing session of Parliament. Forest officials said they were not displeased with the findings, especially since the pressure on forest areas has been on the rise.The area covered by very dense forests – with tree canopy density of 70 per cent or more – rose by just 31 sq km. However, there has been a sizeable decline of moderately dense forests – by 1,221 sq km, or 0.62 per cent - and a substantial increase in open forests, which have tree canopy density of more than 10 per cent and less than 40 per cent.These developments could be seen as possible causes of concern. Tree canopy density refers to a measurement that compares the amount of sunlight above the trees with the amount near the surface.The Status of Forest Report, which is in the nature of a survey, doesn't draw any conclusions. But an analysis of the loss of 1,257 sq km of forests across 13 states makes it clear that agricultural cultivation practices, mining, and other developmental activities have contributed to the loss of forests.The loss is most marked in the North Eastern region, with Nagaland (274 sq km) leading the pack, followed by Tripura (111 sq km), Manipur (100 sq km), Arunachal Pradesh (89 sq km) and Mizoram (63 sq km).The loss, according to the report, is largely on account of shifting cultivation practices and shortening of cultivation cycle. A sizeable loss in forest cover has been registered in Andhra Pradesh (273 sq km), Madhya Pradesh (178 sq km), Karnataka (62 sq km) and Chhattisgarh (53 sq km).In these states, the decline has been attributed to mining activities, encroachments, developmental activities and rotational felling of trees. The survey reports an increase of 7,128 sq km of forest cover, the bulk of this on account of plantation activities outside the recorded forest areas – areas described as forests in government records.West Bengal leads the list with an increase of 3,810 sq km of forest cover. Other states with sizeable increase include Odisha, Kerala, Jharkhand, Bihar and Tamil Nadu.