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Updated 16:13 IST, February 3rd 2025

'No Steps Reducing Forest Land': SC Directs Centre, States

The Supreme Court on Monday restrained until further orders the Centre and the states from taking any step that would reduce forest areas.

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'No Steps Reducing Forest Land': SC Directs Centre, States | Image: PTI

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday restrained until further orders the Centre and the states from taking any step that would reduce forest areas.

A bench of Justices B R Gavai and K Vinod Chandran was hearing a batch of petitions against the amendments to the 2023 forest conservation law.

"We will not permit anything which leads to reduction of forest area. We further order that until further orders, no steps will be taken by the Union of India and any state which will lead to a reduction of forest land unless the Centre and the states provide compensatory land...," the bench said.

The Centre's Additional Solicitor General, Aishwarya Bhati, informed the court that she would file a response to the applications in the case within three weeks. She also stated that a status report would be submitted before the next hearing.  

One of the advocates involved in the matter noted that the pleadings were complete and that the case concerned amendments to the Forest Conservation Law of 2023. The bench scheduled the next hearing for March 4.  

In February last year, the Supreme Court observed that the 2023 amendment to the conservation law had excluded approximately 1.99 lakh square kilometers of forest land from the definition of "forests," making it available for other purposes.  

The bench ruled that any new proposal to establish a zoo or start a "safari" on forest land would require the court’s approval. It also directed state governments and union territories to submit details of forest land under their jurisdiction to the Centre by March 31, 2024.  

Additionally, the court instructed the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change to publish all details related to "forest-like areas, unclassed forest land, and community forest land"—as provided by states and UTs—on its website by April 15 last year.  

"... we issue an interim order to the effect that any proposal for the establishment of zoos and safaris referred to in the Wile Life Protection Act 1972, enacted by the government or any authority in forest areas other than protected areas, shall not be finally approved by the states/union territories, save and except with the prior permission of this court," the court stated.  

In its interim order, the bench directed states and UTs to adhere to the definition of "forest" established in the 1996 Supreme Court judgment in TN Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India.  

The petitioners argued that the Supreme Court’s broad definition of "forest" in that judgment had been significantly narrowed under Section 1A of the amended law. According to the amendment, land must either be officially notified as a forest or explicitly recorded as a forest in government records to be classified as such.  

The Centre defended the amendments, asserting that they were introduced in compliance with the Supreme Court’s directions. On March 27, 2023, the government introduced the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, but the petitions challenging the law's constitutionality have sought its nullification.

(With PTI inputs)

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Published 16:13 IST, February 3rd 2025