{"id":43750,"date":"2025-05-20T19:16:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T13:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=43750"},"modified":"2025-05-20T19:16:30","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T13:46:30","slug":"sc-direction-take-back-forest-land-illegally-allotted-private-entities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/20-05-2025\/sc-direction-take-back-forest-land-illegally-allotted-private-entities","title":{"rendered":"SC Direction to Take Back Forest Land Illegally Allotted to Private Entities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/ Governance, GS3\/ Environment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Supreme Court of India has directed all States and Union Territories to investigate and reclaim forest lands that were illegally allotted for non-forest purposes, citing severe legal and ecological violations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Background<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The directions came while declaring illegal the allotment of <strong>11.89 hectares <\/strong>of reserved forest land in <strong>Kondhwa Budruk, Pune (Maharashtra), <\/strong>Originally allotted for agriculture in 1998.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It was sold to a private builder in 1999.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Chief Justice of India called this a classic example of <strong>political- bureaucratic-builder nexus<\/strong> leading to misuse of valuable forest resources.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Supreme Court ruling<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Formation of Special Investigation Teams (SITs)<\/strong> by Chief Secretaries\/ Administrators to examine forest lands under revenue departments&#8217; control.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Recovery of forest lands<\/strong> from private individuals\/entities and transfer to respective forest departments.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>If reclaiming land is not feasible due to public interest, then cost recovery from beneficiaries, with the amount to be used for forest development.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The entire exercise must be completed within <strong>one year.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Legal &amp; Environmental Issues Highlighted<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Violation of the 1996 Supreme Court Order:<\/strong> The SC had directed in<strong> T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad vs. Union of India (1996) <\/strong>that all non-forest activities on forest land must stop unless approved by the Central Government.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Loss of Green Cover:<\/strong> The continued possession of forest lands by revenue departments has led to non-forestry usage, reducing India\u2019s forest cover and biodiversity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#fff2cc\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Constitutional Safeguards<\/strong><br>&#8211; <strong>Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP):<\/strong> <strong>Article 48A<\/strong> of the Constitution directs the State to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country.<br>&#8211; <strong>Fundamental Duties:<\/strong> <strong>Article 51A(g) <\/strong>enjoins citizens to &#8220;protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers, and wildlife, and to have compassion for living creatures.&#8221;<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Way Ahead<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Forest Mapping: <\/strong>Leverage GIS and remote sensing to clearly demarcate forest boundaries and monitor illegal use.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Create State-level Forest Land Governance Cells <\/strong>with representatives from forest, revenue, and legal departments.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Community Involvement:<\/strong> Involve Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMCs) and tribal communities to report misuse or illegal occupation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Strengthen Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) norms<\/strong> and ensure public participation in forest land diversion cases.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/energy-and-environment\/supreme-court-directs-states-union-territories-to-reclaim-reserved-forests-allotted-to-private-parties\/article69591047.ece\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">The Supreme Court of India has directed all States and Union Territories to investigate and reclaim forest lands that were illegally allotted for non-forest purposes, citing severe legal and ecological violations.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Legal &#038; Environmental Issues Highlighted<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Violation of the 1996 Supreme Court Order: The SC had directed in T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad vs. Union of India (1996) that all non-forest activities on forest land must stop unless approved by the Central Government.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Loss of Green Cover: The continued possession of forest lands by revenue departments has led to non-forestry usage, reducing India\u2019s forest cover and biodiversity.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/20-05-2025\/sc-direction-take-back-forest-land-illegally-allotted-private-entities\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read\u00a0More<\/a><\/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-43750","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\/43750","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=43750"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43766,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43750\/revisions\/43766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}