Forest Conservation Amendment 2023
Introduction:
The Act provides for the conservation of forests
and for matters connected therewith or
ancillary or incidental thereto.
Government says the amendment was necessary
considering the importance of forests in
achievement of national targets of Net Zero
Emission by 2070 and maintain or enhance the
forest carbon stocks through ecologically balanced
sustainable development. Nationally Determined
Contribution (NDC) targets of the country
envisage creating carbon sink of additional 2.5 to
3.0 billion tons of CO2 equivalent by 2030 and the
country envisages an increase in the forest and
tree cover to one third of its land area, which has
to be given impetus with an enhanced growth
trajectory.
Thus, it says, it is necessary to provide for
provisions relating to conservation management
and restoration of forests, maintaining ecological
security, sustaining cultural and traditional values
of forests and facilitating economic needs, carbon
neutrality.
Salient Features:
Renaming: The act is renamed as “Van
(Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980”.
Land Covered under the Law:
Act to cover certain land:
(a) Land notified as forest under Indian
Forest Act, 1927 or under any other law
for the time being in force;
(b) any other land that has been recorded
in Government record as forest, as on or
after the 25th October, 1980
Provided that the provisions of this clause
shall not apply to such land, which has
been changed from forest use to use for
non-forest purpose on or before the 12th
December, 1996 in pursuance of an order,
issued by any authority authorised by a
State Government or an Union territory
Administration in that behalf.
Land that is Not Covered under the Law:
(a) such forest land situated alongside a rail line or
a public road maintained by government, which
provides access to a habitation, or to such rail, and
roadside amenity up to a maximum size of 0.10
hectare in each case;
(b) such tree, tree plantation or reafforestation
raised on lands that are not covered under the
law.
(c) such forest land, –– (i) as is situated within a
distance of hundred kilometres along
international borders or Line of Control or Line of
Actual Control, as the case may be, proposed to
be used for construction of strategic linear project
of national importance and concerning national
security; or (ii) up to ten hectares, proposed to be
used for construction of security related
infrastructure; or (iii) as is proposed to be used for
construction of defence related project or a camp
for paramilitary forces or public utility projects, as
may be specified by the Central Government, the
extent of which does not exceed five hectares in a
Left Wing Extremism affected area as may be
notified by the Central Government.
Non-forest purpose” includes breaking up or
clearing of any forest land or a portion thereof
for–– (a) cultivation of tea, coffee, spices, rubber,
palms, oil-bearing plants, horticultural crops or
medicinal plants; (b) any purpose other than
reafforestation
Non-forest purpose does not include any work
relating to or ancillary to conservation,
development and management of forests and
wildlife, such as—
(i) silvicultural operations including regeneration
operations;
(ii) establishment of check-posts and
infrastructure for the front line forest staff;
(iii) establishment and maintenance of fire lines;
(iv) wireless communications;
(v) construction of fencing, boundary marks or
pillars, bridges and culverts, check dams,
waterholes, trenches and pipelines;
(vi) establishment of zoo and safaris referred to in
the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, owned by the
 Forest Conservation Amendment 2023
Government or any authority, in forest areas other Tripura, Mizoram, and Sikkim prone to diversion.
than protected areas; There is no presence of necessary environmental
(vii) eco-tourism facilities included in the Forest safeguards or scientific scrutiny to check it.
Working Plan or Wildlife Management Plan or Provision of forestland “up to ten hectares,
Tiger Conservation Plan or Working Scheme of proposed to be used for construction of security
that area; and related infrastructure” does not explain where it is
(viii) any other like purposes, which the Central applicable geographically, implying that this
Government may, by order, specify. exemption can be applied anywhere in India, thus
quietly legalises the possibility of diverting any
Concern:
forest in the country.
Instead of serving as a conservation measure,
No clarity with respect to what is ‘security related
Amendment supports “user agencies”, and is
infrastructure’.
poised to escalate largescale deforestation, which
may further exacerbate the ongoing biodiversity Amendment act claims a focus on afforestation
crises, intensify human-wildlife conflict, and and reforestation as a strategy for fulfilling India’s
threaten numerous critically endangered species. carbon goals—of creating an additional carbon
sink of 2.5-3 billion tonnes by 2030, however most
Amendment undermines various Supreme Court
plantations are not successful to that extent
judgments like, T.N. Godavarman Thirumulkpad vs
where they can replace natural forests in
Union Of India & Ors. of 1996, and Lafarge Umiam
sequestering carbon, providing ecosystem
Mining Pvt. Ltd. Vs Union of India and Ors., of
services, serving as watersheds, or functioning as
2011. In the Godavarman judgment (also called as
wildlife habitats. A study published in the British
Forest Conservation Case), the Supreme Court
scientific journal “Nature”, found that the carbon
directed States to identify all unclassified forest
sequestration potential of natural forests is 40
areas that meet the dictionary definition of
times greater than that of plantations.
forests, besides what is already protected by the
government, and set up State Expert Committees Under the guise of afforestation, the amendment
(SECs) to carry out the exercise. introduces sweeping exemptions from
environmental scrutiny for a host of proposed
In the Lafarge case, the Supreme Court asked the
infrastructural and extractive projects in several
MoEFCC and State Governments to compile and
forest types, like unclassed forests, deemed
publish “geo-referenced district forest maps
forests or forests as per dictionary meaning,
containing the details of the location and
irrespective of ownership, as well as private
boundary of each plot of land that may be defined
forests. The projects include mining, expansion of
as ‘forest’ for the purpose of the Forest
roads and railways, and exploratory mineral
(Conservation) Act, 1980”. Nothing tangible seems
surveys, all of which cause significant and
to have been done in this regard.
irreversible environmental damage. Many of these
Amendment may give a free hand to States to projects required clearance from the Centre in the
regularise encroachments and decide on past but can now be cleared at the State level.
diversions of forestlands. Many expost facto
Amendment exempts too many activities by
approval will end up in legalising the illegal
terming them not to be considered as non-forest
encroachments. Such diversions will have
use and it also empowers central government to
irreversible consequences on the ecological
declared any other activities in that category, thus
balance of landscapes, pose a threat to wildlife
virtually paving the way for large scale diversion of
and to the well-being of local communities
forest land.
dependent on them.
The blanket exemptions given to 100 kilometres of
India’s borders may virtually make entire forest
area of the northeastern States of Nagaland,