The country's forest cover has increased by six per cent in the past two years from 6,37,293 sq km to 6,75,538 sq km taking the country closer to the goal of bringing 25 per cent of the geographical area under forest by 2007. The state of the Forest Report 2001, released by the Union Environment Minister, T.R. Baalu has assessed the forest cover and tree cover to be about 7,57,010 sq km constituting 23.03 per cent of the country's geographical area.