Centre likely to challenge Uttarakhand forest notice

Why in news?
  • The Union Environment Ministry is likely to challenge a recent notification by the Uttarakhand Forest Department on its definition of a “deemed forest”.
More in news
  • Deemed forests:
(1) Comprise about 1% of India’s forest land.
(2) They are a controversial subject as they refer to land tracts that appear to be a “forest”, but have not been notified so by the government or in historical records.
(3) The freedom to define which tracts of forest qualify as forest has been the prerogative of States since 1996.
(4) However, it only applies to forest land that has not already been historically classified as “forest” in revenue records, or categorised so by the government as “protected” or “reserve forest”.
  • Notification by the Uttarakhand government
(1) It said that in areas recorded as “deemed forest” only tracts 10 hectares and above and having a canopy density of greater than 60%, would be considered forest.
(2) The notification appears to extend the definition even to tracts already recorded as forest in revenue records.
Sources
The Hindu




Posted by Jawwad Kazi on 5th Dec 2019