<p>Forests are crucial to the extensive tapestry of social, cultural, and political contexts as well as for the variety of species on Earth, and are highly beneficial for economic and environmental sustainability. The impact of sectoral economic growth on forest cover remains a key concern for economists and environmentalists worldwide. Hence, this study explores the relationships between forest cover and sector-wise economic growth in India from 1990 to 2021 using the “Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model”. In the short run, agriculture, forestry, and fishing, and industry had a significant negative impact on forest cover. Services and net foreign direct investment (FDI) also had a detrimental negative impact, while the impact of net FDI became positive after a one-year lag. In the long run, agriculture, forestry, and fishing had a substantial negative impact, while services and net FDI had a significant positive impact on the forest cover. Industry and trade openness had an insignificant impact on the forest cover. Granger Causality Test observed a “unidirectional relationship” running from agriculture, forestry, and fishing, and industry towards forest cover, and from forest cover towards trade openness and net FDI. Moreover, a “bi-directional relationship” between the forest cover and services was observed. Therefore, by bringing attention to the importance of developing sector-specific policies that balance environmental concerns and ensure sustainability, this study significantly advances our understanding of the relationship between “sectoral economic growth and forest cover”, which will be beneficial for government officials and policymakers.</p>