The paper analyses mitigation options feasible in the forestry sector of India and estimates the carbon sequestration potential of forests for these options. The current scenario suggests that forests are emitting more carbon compared with carbon sequestered by tree growth. This will be the case until there exists an alternative supply of timber and fuelwood, which can decrease the overdependence on forests. If the entire area of feasible land is used for forestry, the mean estimate of carbon sequestered by natural forests along with newly afforested plantations is around 153 Tg (teragrams) carbon per year by 2030, equivalent to the 1990 fossil fuel emissions of India. An attractive feature of forest-based mitigation is that a large amount of carbon can be sequestered over a much shorter time than that over which energy consumption patterns are likely to change. In India, where there is overdependence on fuelwood, the fuelwood produced by a forest-based mitigation programme could delay a rise in fossil fuel consumption and buy time while technological and social change takes place.