Ranchi, July 28: As much as 29 per cent of the area of Jharkhand is covered by forests as opposed to the national figure of 18 per cent.

That rosy picture has been fed, year after year, by the forest department and the state government. Even the chief minister, in his address to the National Development Council in New Delhi, insisted that environmental clearance for industrial projects should be given more easily and faster to Jharkhand because of the already healthy forest cover in the state.

But how green is the state in reality? Doubts have surfaced due to several factors. How is the government so certain about the figure? By their own admission, the forest department has no control over forests, which, officials admit, have been taken over by Maoists. What?s more, the department is far too prompt in acknowledging that tribals fell trees for a living and there is nothing they can do about it.

Third, reports indicate that between 1997 and 1999 the forest cover in what is now Jharkhand actually fell sharply. The situation on the ground, if anything, has worsened since then. If forests have been disappearing at the same rate since 1999, how does one explain or accept the official claim?

Finally, how does one explain the extreme heat-wave and the increasingly unbearable summer months in the state, if forest-cover is as substantial or if it has been going up, as claimed by the forest department?

Sanjoy Bosu Mallik, a spokesman of the Jungle Bachao Andolan, is forthright in describing the official claim as a ?white lie?.

Alleging that the forest department is misleading people and giving a wrong picture to cover up its own failures, he claims that a recent World Bank report had put the forest-cover in Jharkhand at just 14 per cent. Density of forests in Saranda and Palamau too, he pointed out, has also reduced sharply. Even annual assessment of government of India, he claimed, put forest-cover in Jharkhand far below the official claims.

But forest department officials remain as upbeat as ever. Principal chief conservator of forests J.L. Srivastava claims that between 1999 and 2002, forest cover increased in the state by 993 square kilometres. By 2012, he says, one-third area of the state will be covered by forests. By then most of the senior forest department officials will also retire.