Forest is the second largest land use in India next to agriculture. The forest cover of India is assessed as 67.83 million hectares which constitute 20.64 per cent of the country's geographical area, ranging from the Himalayan Temperate to Dry Zone forests. The National Forest Policy stipulates that one-third of area should be under forest or tree cover. Being a mega-bio diversity country, the nation possesses high level of endemism.