{"id":37077,"date":"2025-02-10T18:48:29","date_gmt":"2025-02-10T13:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=37077"},"modified":"2025-08-13T12:32:03","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T07:02:03","slug":"supreme-court-sacred-groves-directive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/10-02-2025\/supreme-court-sacred-groves-directive","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Directive on Sacred Groves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/ Polity and Governance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>In News<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Supreme Court of India directed that there is a need for a nationwide survey of sacred groves under the guidance of the <strong>Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&amp;CC).<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>More about the News<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The SC directed to classify Sacred Groves as <strong>\u2018forests\u2019 <\/strong>and notify them as <strong>\u2018community reserves\u2019 <\/strong>under the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/10-12-2022\/wild-life-protection-amendment-bill\">Wildlife Protection Act (WLPA) 1972<\/a>.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The court mandated the formation of a \u2018<strong>Community Reserve Management Committee<\/strong>\u2019 to the State government to oversee their conservation and management.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What are Sacred Groves?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Sacred groves are patches of trees or forest areas that are <strong>traditionally protected by local communities<\/strong> for their religious, cultural, and ecological significance.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>They are known by diverse names:<\/strong> Devarakadu in Karnataka, Kavu in Kerala, Sarna in Madhya Pradesh, Oran in Rajasthan, Devrai in Maharashtra, Umanglai in Manipur, Law Kyntang\/Law Lyngdoh in Meghalaya, Devan\/Deobhumi in Uttarakhand etc.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Sacred groves preserve<\/strong> biodiversity, regulate climate, conserve water, support livelihoods, protect cultural heritage, and promote environmental awareness.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What are community reserves?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The concept of community reserves was introduced through the <strong>Wildlife Protection (Amendment) Act, 2002,<\/strong> to recognize and protect community-managed ecosystems.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>These reserves are designated over private or community-owned lands where local communities voluntarily participate in habitat conservation to protect wildlife and traditional conservation values.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Key provisions include:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Land-use changes within these reserves require approval from the reserve management committee and the state government.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The Chief Wildlife Warden<\/strong> has the overall authority over the reserve\u2019s management.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The WLPA and FRA: A potential conflict<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/04-04-2025\/forest-rights-act-fra\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/04-04-2025\/forest-rights-act-fra\"> <\/a><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/04-04-2025\/forest-rights-act-fra\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/04-04-2025\/forest-rights-act-fra\">Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006<\/a>,<\/strong> was enacted to recognize the traditional rights of forest-dwelling communities over forests, including sacred groves.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>By classifying sacred groves as community reserves under WLPA, the decision contradicts FRA\u2019s objective.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#fff2cc\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>T.N. Godavarman v. Union of India Case (1996)<\/strong><br>&#8211; In this case, the Supreme Court interpreted Section 2 of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. The court ruled that \u2018forest land\u2019 includes;<br>1. Areas considered as &#8216;forest&#8217; in the dictionary sense.<br>2. Any area recorded as forest in government records, irrespective of ownership.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Way Forward<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Inclusive Policy Formulation:<\/strong> The MoEFCC should develop a comprehensive Sacred Grove Conservation Policy in consultation with local communities, ensuring that governance aligns with the FRA.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Co-Management Approach:<\/strong> Instead of transferring full control to the Forest Department, a co-management model between gram sabhas and forest officials could be explored.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Legal Harmonization:<\/strong> A legal reconciliation between the WLPA and FRA is necessary to prevent jurisdictional conflicts and uphold community rights.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Scientific Mapping with Traditional Knowledge: <\/strong>While satellite mapping is crucial, community knowledge should be integrated into identifying and managing sacred groves.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/hehindu.com\/sci-tech\/energy-and-environment\/what-is-the-supreme-court-directive-on-sacred-groves-explained\/article69183751.ece#:~:text=On%20December%2018%2C\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court of India directed that there is a need for a nationwide survey of sacred groves under the guidance of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&#038;CC).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37077"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51181,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37077\/revisions\/51181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}