In India, the lack of 'green cover' was recognized some decades ago and resulted in a massive plantation drive, where trees of any description were planted throughout the country at considerable expense to the public exchequer. There has been an increase in greenery in subsequent years, but surely these wooded areas are not forests?

A plantation of trees, to my mind, is just that, or, at best, a wood. To apply the term forest to such plantations is surely misleading, whether willfully or in ignorance. I wish to know whether this practice is followed in other parts of the world or whether the people of India have been victims of a scam.