Prepare report of forest land to delineate areas where FCA will apply: Govt to states

The Union environment ministry has asked states and Union territories to prepare a consolidated report of forest land as available in government records or are notified as forest under law to delineate areas where the Forest Conservation Amendment Act 2023 will apply.

- Jayashree Nandi

"Forest-like" areas or deemed forests identified by expert committees constituted in pursuance of a December 1996 Supreme Court order will come under the purview of the Act and will be treated as forests.

This also means that it is up to the states now to identify forest like areas that have not been identified yet by the expert committees but meet the definition of forests as per dictionary meaning. Areas that aren't identified will not get the forest tag any more and will be available for industrial and infrastructure projects, experts said.