The Odisha government has withdrawn a controversial order issued on August 11, which told district officials that ‘deemed forests’ as a category would cease to exist under the recently amended Forest Act.
“The order has been withdrawn,” C.P. Goyal, Director-General (Forests), told The Hindu in a text message but didn’t give details on the reason for doing so.
‘Deemed forests’ are forests that aren’t classified so, by the Centre or States, in their records. However, a 1996 judgment of the Supreme Court in the Godavarman case entrusted States with identifying parcels of land “that conformed to the dictionary meaning of forest...irrespective of ownership” and expanding protections available under the Forest Act to them too. An updated Forest Act, passed by Parliament this month, said that only forests classified and recorded as such after 1980 would be protected. Forest land officially diverted by the government for non-forestry purposes between 1980 and 1996 would also not be protected.
