Acts governing forests in India

Subject: Environment

Context:Assam Chief Minister HimantaBiswaSarma and spiritual leader SadhguruJaggi Vasudev visited Kaziranga National Park after sunset

Concept :

In India, entry into forests is governed by two laws — The Indian Forest Act, 1927, and The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
The Indian Forest Act, 1927 applies to all reserve forests and bars trespassing. Everyone other than people who live in villages inside reserve forests, needs permission from the divisional forest officer concerned for entering these forests for any purpose.
The Wildlife Protection Act empowers the Chief Wildlife Warden of a state to frame laws for tourists entering Protected Areas — sanctuaries and national parks.
Under the same Act, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has the powers to set rules for tiger reserves. Kaziranga National Park is also a tiger reserve.

Indian Forest Act (IFA), 1927:

It provides a legal framework for protection and management of forests, transit of forest produce and timber, and duty that can be levied on forest produce and timber.
IFA is an umbrella act which provides the basic architecture for the management of forests in the country.
It also includes providing mechanisms to ensure notification of reserved, protected and village forests, protection of forest resources, forest biodiversity and wildlife of the country

Reserved Forests

Reserved forests constitute more than half of the total forest area of India.
It has a certain degree of protection. They are protected by the respective state governments unlike wildlife sanctuaries and national parks which are supervised by the Government of India.
It is considered as the most valuable type of forest from the perspective of conservation.
Rights to activities like collecting timber or grazing cattle or hunting and public entry are banned in these forests.

Protected Forests

Protected forests are of two types:
- demarcated and
- undemarcated
They have a limited amount of protection.
These are looked after by the government but certain activities like hunting, grazing or timber collecting are allowed to people who live on the boundaries of forests and are partially or wholly dependent on the forest resources for livelihood, provided they don’t cause severe damage to the forests.

Village Forests

Village forests are protected and managed by village communities which are assigned by the state governments.
The local communities may use it for timber or other forest produce, pasture, recreation, plantation and so on under prescribed conditions by state governments.

Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972:

The Act was enacted for the protection of plants and animal species.
It has six schedules that give varying degrees of protection.
Schedule I and part II of Schedule II provide absolute protection – offenses under these are prescribed the highest penalties.
Species listed in Schedule III and Schedule IV are also protected, but the penalties are much lower.
Schedule V includes the animals which may be hunted. The specified endemic plants in Schedule VI are prohibited from cultivation and planting. The hunting to the Enforcement authorities has the power to compound offenses under this Schedule (i.e. they impose fines on the offenders).
The act has been amended in 1982, 1986, 1991, 1993, 2002, 2006 and 2013.