The Centre has no reliable data on the impact of joint forest management (JFM) on the forest resources despite of the fact that JFM was introduced more than a decade back in the country and lakhs of hectare have been put under green cover through this community forest management scheme. Also, there is no concrete data available with the Centre on dam age to green cover by fire, pests or the extent of encroachment within the forest area. India has 1.8 per cent of world's forest cover. These glaring facts came to the fore on Tuesday during the meeting of parliamentary consultative committee of the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF), where members expressed concern about the degradation of forest cover, shifting of grazing land from villages and afforestation programme being implemented in hilly, mountainous and coastal areas. The state of forest cover in the country can also be measured from the fact that most of the state forest departments do not have geo-referenced forest maps, which are essential in gauging the quality of forest cover. There is also dearth of trained officers who can use the latest information technology in forest management activities. The latest state of the forest report has shown that the country has only 1.66 per cent of the total forest cover as "very dense". The country has 20.6 per cent of its geographical area under forest cover. As per the National Forest Policy, one-third of the total land area of the country has to be brought under forest or tree cover. During the meeting, committee members were informed that there is dearth of land as some of the land, marked for green cover, has either been put under some other use or has been encroached. To spread awareness about the afforestation drive, the MoEF has asked state governments to constitute apex committee at the level of chief secretary which van periodically review and the monitor the progress of the drive. Members suggested that rehabilitation of villagers from within the forest and tiger reserves should be completed at the earliest.