The Supreme Court ordered the government on Monday to continue the dictionary definition of "forest" as defined in the 1996 T.N.
Godavraman Thirumulpad case before making a final decision on a petition to change the Forest Conservation Act of 2023.
The court also ordered the government to release a comprehensive list of "forest" land in the Union Territories and States by April.
Understand everything about the story. Before proceeding, learn about the Forest Conservation Act.The Forest Conservation Act took effect in 1980.
The Forest Conservation Act was introduced to stop forest destruction.
The average annual diversion dropped to 22,000 hectares after the Act was implemented. The Centre reported that this rate was 10% of the previous redirection rate.
However, this legislation mostly applied to forest land listed by states in records since 1980 or covered by the Indian Forest Act.