Govt’s definition of forest may run into conflict with SC

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Nitin Sethi | TNN

New Delhi: The ministry of environment and forests is veering towards another battle with the SC. It has prepared a draft definition of forests which will remove private forest lands from the purview of forest-related laws, coming in conflict with a SC order of 1996, which had brought all forests, regardless if they grow on private or government notified lands, under the provisions of stringent forest-related legislations.
Now the ministry is proposing to define a forest as ‘‘an area under government control notified or recorded as forest under any act, for conservation and management of ecological and biological resources’’.
The definition is bound to have huge implications for the corporate lobby, the plantation sector as well as many farmers and tribals. Any diversion of a patch of land legally defined as forest requires prior permission from the ministry and has been a long-standing grouse of both the industry and the tribals for encumbering the land with several restrictions. TOI had earlier reported when the ministry had made a move on the controversial issue setting up a possible battle with the SC.
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