About International Day of Forests
The International Day of Forests, often called World Forest Day, is observed on 21 March, and in 2027 it falls on Sunday, 21 March 2027. The UN General Assembly created it in 2012, and the Food and Agriculture Organization runs it with a theme chosen each year. In India it usually means school plantation drives, forest department exhibitions and talks about the state of the country's forests.
Twenty-first of March is the wrong month to plant a tree in most of India. That single fact explains why the International Day of Forests works better as a day for counting, protecting and thanking than for digging pits.
What is the International Day of Forests and why 21 March?
The International Day of Forests is a United Nations observance held on 21 March each year. The General Assembly proclaimed it in 2012, and the first one was held in 2013. The date sits on the equinox, when day and night are close to equal in both hemispheres, which suited a day meant to cover forests from the tropics to the Arctic.
The Food and Agriculture Organization runs the day with the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, a group of international organisations that picks the theme. The theme for the 2026 observance was Forests and Economies. Older themes have covered forests and health, forests and food, and forests and innovation.
A few figures the FAO puts out with the day are worth knowing. Woodfuel supplies about 40 per cent of the world's renewable energy, which is roughly as much as solar, hydro and wind together. Around 2.4 billion people cook or heat with it. Trees placed well in a city can cool the air around them by two to eight degrees.
How much forest does India have?
The India State of Forest Report 2023, the eighteenth in a series that the Forest Survey of India has produced since 1987, put forest and tree cover at 8,27,357 sq km, which is 25.17 per cent of the country's area. Forest cover alone was 7,15,343 sq km, or 21.76 per cent; tree cover outside forests made up the remaining 3.41 per cent. Compared with the 2021 report, the two together rose by 1,445 sq km.
India's forests are not one thing. The dry teak forests of central India, the wet evergreen slopes of the Western Ghats, the pine and oak belts of the Himalaya, the mangroves of the Sundarban and the thorn scrub of Rajasthan are all in the same total.
| Forest type | Where | What grows there |
|---|---|---|
| Tropical moist deciduous | Central and eastern India | Teak, sal, bamboo; the classic tiger forest |
| Tropical wet evergreen | Western Ghats, Andamans, Northeast | Dipterocarps, cane, heavy epiphytes |
| Subtropical and temperate | Himalayan states | Chir pine, deodar, oak, rhododendron |
| Mangrove | Sundarban, Bhitarkanika, Gulf of Kachchh | Sundari, avicennia; India's mangrove cover is 4,992 sq km |
| Tropical thorn | Rajasthan, parts of the Deccan | Khejri, babool, ber |
What is the Indian history behind forest protection?
Two events come up whenever forests and people are discussed in India, and both are older than any UN day.
In 1730, at Khejarli near Jodhpur, Amrita Devi and hundreds of other Bishnoi villagers were killed while trying to stop the maharaja's men from felling khejri trees for a lime kiln. Accounts put the number at 363. The Union environment ministry designated the anniversary, 11 September, as National Forest Martyrs Day in 2013, now used to remember forest staff killed on duty as well.
In the 1970s, villagers in the Garhwal Himalaya stopped contractors from felling trees by standing between them and the axes. The Chipko movement took its name from the Hindi for clinging. On 25 March 1974, Gaura Devi led twenty-seven women of Reni village to the felling site and faced down the loggers while the men of the village were away.
India's own tree festival is separate from the UN day. Van Mahotsav was started in 1950 by K. M. Munshi, then Union minister for food and agriculture, and is held in the first week of July, when the monsoon gives a sapling a fighting chance.
What to write on the International Day of Forests
On the International Day of Forests, thank you for the fire lines, the patrols and the paperwork. The map stays green because of all three.
Happy International Day of Forests. If we plant saplings this year, let us also budget for watering them till next June.
Wishing you a happy Forest Day. May your trail stay shaded and your leech count stay low.
Happy International Day of Forests. The neem you planted behind the house is still the coolest spot in the village.
Happy Forest Day. Learn ten trees on your street by name this year. It changes how a city looks.
Happy International Day of Forests. Here's to plot data, canopy counts and everyone who argues with a satellite image.
See also World Environment Day on 5 June, which is when most Indian tree planting is announced, World Soil Day on 5 December and International Mountain Day on 11 December.
How to wish someone on International Day of Forests
A forest wish that promises to plant a tree should mean it, because saplings planted in March rarely survive an Indian summer without watering. Better messages thank the people who look after forests, or name a forest the reader knows. For forest officers and tribal communities, the day is about work and livelihood, not scenery.
Write a few lines in your own words, pick a design and share it as one link on WhatsApp, Instagram or anywhere else. They open an animated card made just for them, with no app and no sign-up.
Language tip: English, Hindi + recipient language.
When is International Day of Forests in 2026 and 2027?
International Day of Forests is on 21 Mar every year. Only the weekday changes.
- 2026
- 2027
Frequently asked questions
When is International Day of Forests in 2027?
International Day of Forests 2027 falls on Sunday, 21 March 2027.
Why is the International Day of Forests on 21 March?
The UN General Assembly chose 21 March in 2012 because it falls on the equinox, when day and night are nearly equal in the northern and southern hemispheres. That made it a neutral date for a day covering forests in both halves of the world. The first observance was in 2013.
What is the difference between World Forest Day and Van Mahotsav?
World Forest Day, properly the International Day of Forests, is a UN observance on 21 March. Van Mahotsav is an Indian tree-planting week held in the first week of July, started by K. M. Munshi in 1950 and timed for the monsoon so that saplings survive.
How much of India is covered by forest?
The India State of Forest Report 2023 put India's forest and tree cover at 25.17 per cent of its land area, or 8,27,357 sq km. Forest cover alone was 21.76 per cent, with tree cover outside recorded forests making up another 3.41 per cent.
What was the Chipko movement?
The Chipko movement was a protest in the Garhwal Himalaya in the 1970s in which villagers, many of them women, stopped commercial felling by standing against the trees. Gaura Devi's stand with twenty-seven women at Reni village on 25 March 1974 is its best-known moment.
Is planting a tree on 21 March a good idea in India?
Usually not. Late March is the start of the hot season across most of India, and an unwatered sapling has poor odds. Planting at the start of the monsoon, as Van Mahotsav does in July, gives far better survival, so 21 March is better spent on care of existing trees.
What does forest cover actually measure?
In Indian official reporting, forest cover is all land of at least one hectare with a tree canopy of ten per cent or more, regardless of ownership or what species grow there. Plantations, orchards and degraded patches can be counted, so the figure is broader than natural forest.
Last verified by the Kehdoo team on .