UNCLASSED FORESTS -
ENVIRONMENT PRELIMS
News: Chunk of India’s forests
‘missing’ after 27-year-delay to file reports | Analysis
What's in the news?
●
In accordance with a Supreme Court directive, the
Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has uploaded
various State Expert Committee (SEC) reports on its website.
Key takeaways:
●
This interim measure was prompted by a Public
Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the constitutionality of the Forest
(Conservation) Act Amendment (FCAA) 2023.
●
A primary concern raised in the petition was the
status of unclassed forests, which were to be identified by the state SEC
reports.
Unclassed Forests:
●
Unclassed or deemed
forests are areas that may belong to various government entities, community
forests, or private ownership but have not
been officially notified as forests.
Legal Protection:
●
Unclassed forests gained legal protection following
the landmark case of T.N. Godavarman
Thirumalpad (1996).
●
This case stipulated that all categories of forests, regardless of ownership and notification
status, fall under the ambit of the Forest
(Conservation) Act 1980.
Identification Process:
●
Special Environment Committees (SECs) were tasked with
identifying unclassed forests across the country through available records and
physical identification, irrespective of ownership.
Regulatory Stipulations:
●
The Forest (Conservation) Act Amendment (FCAA)
makes prior approval of the Central
Government necessary for dereservation of reserved forests, use of forest
land for non-forest purposes, assigning forest land to private entities, or
clearing naturally grown trees for reafforestation.
Applicability of FCAA:
●
The FCAA applies to land notified as forest under the Indian Forest Act, 1927, or in
government records after the 1980 Act came into effect.
●
However, it excludes
certain land categories, including those recorded as forest before October
25, 1980, but not notified, and land that changed from forest-use to
non-forest-use before December 12, 1996.
Concerns:
●
This provision may contradict the 1996 Supreme
Court judgment aimed at preventing deforestation, potentially leading to the
loss of protection for unclassed forests and their eventual diversion.