The Supreme Court passed two consecutive orders, on February 3 and March 4, in response to a petition filed by retired Indian Forest Service (IFS) officers challenging the validity of the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023. The first order prohibits the diversion of forest lands without providing for compensatory afforestation, while the second directs defaulting states and Union Territory (UT) administrations to constitute an expert committee within a month to identify deemed forests and prepare a GIS-based decision-support database as required under Rule 16(1) of the amendment rules..
The court further mandated that these expert committees submit their reports within six months, holding chief secretaries and UT administrators personally responsible for any failure to comply..Earlier, in December 1996, the SC in the T N Godavarman had already directed states and UTs to constitute expert committees to identify and protect all wooded areas that are non-notified forests under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.
However, in its latest affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on February 28, the Ministry of Environment revealed that some states have still not complied, despite the passage of nearly three decades..Even after the Van (Sanrakshan evam Samvardhan) Rules, 2023 , made this identification mandatory, several states and UTs have continued to evade compliance.
.Post-1996 orders, many states identified their deemed forests in the early 2000s. However, some later sought to.