Punjab forest cover just 3.67%; three Shivalik districts hold 63%

Punjab is a big state in India, but it has very few forests.

Only a tiny part of Punjab - about 3.67 out of every 100 square kilometers - has trees and forests.

That makes it one of the states with the least forest in the whole country.

The government wants to fix this problem.

During 2022-23, workers planted more than 45 lakh baby trees, called saplings, across thousands of hectares of land.

But most of Punjab's forests are found in just three areas near the Shivalik hills.

One of these areas, called Hoshiarpur, holds almost 38 out of every 100 square kilometers of the state's forests.

Even though people are planting new trees, the forest is still very small.

So Punjab still needs to do a lot more to grow and protect its forests.