This study describes the Indian forestry-related stocks and flows in terms of land area (under forest), physical volume (of timber and carbon), and monetary values. The study demonstrates that forest resource accounting is feasible in India at a disaggregate level using a top-down approach and provides an interesting view of how different regions are doing when their performance is measured on a sustainability yardstick. Accounting for forest wealth is an important ingredient in creating a framework for analysing policy trade-offs.
Recognizing that GDP growth is too narrow and inappropriate as a measure of economic growth and national wealth, the paper proposes to build a framework of adjusted national accounts that represents genuine net additions to national wealth, which is referred to as "Green Accounts." This system of environmentally-adjusted national income accounts will not only reflect the depletion of natural resources and the health costs of pollution in economic terms, but it will also reward additions to the stock of human capital through education. This paper is the first in a series of monographs of the Green Accounting for Indian States and Union Territories Project (GAISP), which aims to set up top-down economic models for state-wide annual estimates of adjusted GSDP, thus capturing and analysing true value addition at both state and national levels.