Read the passage given below and answer the following question. (Q 2)
Land-use records are maintained by land revenue department. The land use categories add up to reporting area, which is somewhat different from the geographical area. The Survey of India is responsible for measuring geographical area of administrative units in India. The difference between the two concepts are that while the former changes somewhat depending on the estimates of the land revenue records, the latter does not change and stays fixed as per Survey of India measurements.

Assertion: Actual forest cover in India is different from area classified as forest.
Reasoning: There may be an increase in the area classified as "forests" without any increase in the actual forest cover.

Both Assertion (A) and reasoning (R) are correct and but R is not the correct explanation of A.

The correct answer is option 2: Both Assertion (A) and reasoning (R) are correct and but R is not the correct explanation of A.

• The Assertion (A) is correct because the actual forest cover in India (the area actually covered by trees) is different from the area classified as forest (the area recorded in government land revenue records). This difference exists because of the way these two are defined (classified = government records, actual = physical cover).

• The Reason (R) is also correct because the area classified as forest may increase without a real increase in tree cover — this is simply because the government may identify and record more land as “forest” in revenue records. Forest is the area which the Government has identified and demarcated for forest growth. 

• However, this reasoning does not directly explain why the actual forest cover is different from the classified area. While (R) is true as a fact, it only gives one situation (increase in classified area without increase in actual cover). It does not explain why the two are different in the first place.The difference mainly exists because the classified area is a legal/administrative category, not a measure of actual tree cover. The increase in classified forest area does not necessarily mean there is more tree cover.

"It is important to note that area under actual forest cover in India is different from area classified as forest. The latter is the area which the Government has identified and demarcated for forest growth. The land revenue records are consistent with the latter definition. Thus, there may be an increase in this category without any increase in the actual forest cover."