Vegetation Map of Ganges Basin
The Forest Survey of India made the forest cover assessment of Ganges basin in 1995 by visual interpretation of satellite data pertaining to the period 1981-91 and worked out the statistics of the catchment. The vegetation cover map of Ganges Basin which has prepared by FSI on 1:250,000 scale is 6.95m long and 4.05 m wide.
The Ganga Basin is covered by 102 Survey of India (SOI) toposheets on 1:250,000 scale. The Ganges has a total length of 2525 km has catchment area of 851675 sq.km. which is 25.91% of the geographic area of the country. The basin supports 42% of the total population of the country. The Ganges originates from Gomukh glacier in Uttar Kashi district of Uttaranchal state and enters the Bay of Bengal after traversing the states of Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. The details are given in table no.1 and 2.
Table 1: Catchment Area and Population in the Ganges Basin
| State | Catchment Area (sq.km.) | Population (in lakh) |
| Uttranchal & Uttar Pradesh | 2,94,411 | 1391.12 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 6,201 | 4.61 |
| Haryana | 33,422 | 129.66 |
| Delhi | 1,483 | 94.21 |
| Rajasthan | 1,15,845 | 214.87 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 2,00,252 | 379.42 |
| Bihar | 1,36,925 | 803.26 |
| West Bengal | 63,136 | 547.93 |
| Total | 8,51,675 |
Table 2: Extent of Forest Cover in Ganges Basin
| Catchment area | Dense Forest | Open Forest | Mangrove | Total | Scrub | Non-Forest | Grand Total |
| Ganga Basin | 63,011 | 47,682 | 2,119 | 1,12,812 | 9,898 | 7,28,965 | 8,51,675 |
| 7.40 | 5.60 | 0.25 | 13.25 | 1.16 | 4.61 | 85.60 | 100.00 |