Data from the EnviStats India 2022 indicates that India’s overall Mangrove cover has increased to 4,992 square kilometres by the year 2021 compared to 4,046 square kilometres in the year 1987. However, as per the government’s official sources, India has lost about 40% of mangrove forest area in the preceding century before the year 1987. The Mangroves and their ecological importance are not only widely acknowledged, but also scientifically proven across the globe. According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the Mangroves are extremely important to the coastal ecosystems. The wide variety of their ecological services includes serving as biodiversity hotspots, maintainers of water quality, sequesters of carbon, and providers of livelihood, among many others. They also serve as a buffer between marine and terrestrial communities and protect shorelines from damaging winds, waves, and floods. Because of these diverse benefits, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) recognizes them as also being called as ‘Tidal Forests’, ‘Coastal Woodlands’, ‘Walking Forest in the Sea’, ‘Root of the Sea’ and ‘Oceanic Rain Forests’. Therefore, the importance of mangrove protection, preservation and increasing their cover, especially in the contemporary world of climate change is emphasized by many nations globally. The NDMA itself recognizes that conserving and restoring mangroves is essential to fighting climate change, and the warming of the global climate. The recently published 2022 edition of the Environmental Statistics Data of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), which is sourced from the Forest Survey of India’s (FSI) State of Forest Report, 2021, shows several important aspects related to the status of mangroves and their coverage in India. In this story, we look at these statistics. Methodology The data has been sourced from Mangrove Datasets from Dataful which has been in turn compiled from the information published by MoSPI and FSI. These datasets are used for analysis in this story. Data shows Increase in Mangrove Forest Area, but the Original Loss has not been fully Restored The data shows that India’s overall Mangrove cover in the year 1987 was 4,046 square kilometres or 404600 hectares. This has increased to 4,992 square kilometres by the year 2021. Therefore, in nearly 4 decades, the Mangrove has increased by 946 square kilometres. However, as per the government’s official data itself, India lost about 40% of its mangrove forest area in the preceding century before the year 1987. Therefore, when compared to India’s overall coverage of 4,046 square kilometres in the year 1987, India has lost 1618.4 square kilometres of Mangrove Forest area. Thus, although the overall figure in the last four decades has increased by 946 square kilometres, the remaining about 672.4 square kilometres, which is about 41.5% of lost Mangrove Forest, has not been compensated yet. Very Less area of Higher Canopy Cover, bulk of Forest is under Degraded Status The Mangrove cover data has also been classified by quantity of canopy cover as Very Dense, Moderately Dense and Open Mangrove Forests. As per the official definition, the mangrove forests with 70% or more, 40% to 70% and 10% to 40% canopy cover are classified as Very Dense, Moderately Dense and Open Forests, respectively. The analysis of the data shows that from the year 2003 to 2021, the area under Very Dense and Open Forests has increased from 1162 to 1475 and 1632 to 2036 square kilometres, respectively. However, the area under Moderately Dense Forest has decreased from 1657 to 1481 square kilometres. Thus, the data shows that out of the total 4992 square kilometres of Mangrove Forest as of 2021, the area under less than 70% of canopy cover is 3,517 square kilometres, which accounts for 78% of the total Mangrove Forest area. Within this, the area under less than 40% canopy cover is 2036 square kilometres, which is about 45% of the total mangrove forest area. Therefore, the mangrove forest with very dense or higher canopy cover is only 22% even as of date. Further, the MoEF&CC defines all forest lands which have a canopy cover of less than 40% as degraded forest land for Compensatory Afforestation (CA). As per the same definition, 45% or 2026 square kilometres of existing mangrove forests in India fall within the category of ‘Degraded Forests.’ Therefore, as per the official definition itself, the bulk of the mangrove forest cover in India is under the status of degradation. Only 1 in every 7 coastal districts have Higher Canopy Cover Mangroves India has 9 states and 2 union territories with coastal belt, with a total of 55 coastal districts.