Amendment to the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 Proposed by MoEFCC

Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has proposed an amendment to the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. Ministry has sent the proposed amendments to all the state governments, asking for their objections and suggestions within 15 days. The draft proposal will be drawn and placed before Parliament after taking suggestions from states into consideration.

• The amendment puts forward stringent norms for the conservation of forest, by hiking the penal provisions for offenses.
• Amendment also provides for maintaining “pristine forests”. Non-forestry activity will not be allowed within the pristine forests, under any circumstances.
• Under the amendment; deemed forests, that have been listed by state governments up to 1996, will continue to be considered as forest land.
• Land acquired by the Railways and the road ministries before 1980, on which forests came up, will not be considered as forests.
• The amendment would also reduce the flow from foreign exchange for importing wood & wood derivatives of approximately Rs 45,000 crore by means of encouraging plantations and afforestation.