Sec 29 to 34 Chapter IV (Of Protected Forest) The Indian Forest Act, 1927

29. Protected forests.—

(1) The 1 [State Government] may, by notification in the 4 [Official Gazette], declare the provisions of this Chapter applicable to any forest-land or waste-land which is not included in a reserved forest, but which is the property of Government, or over which the Government has proprietary rights, or to the whole or any part of the forests produce of which the Government is entitled.

(2) The forest-land and waste-lands comprised in any such notification shall be called a “protected forests”.

(3) No such notification shall be made unless the nature and extent of the rights of Government and of private persons in or over the forest-land or waste-land comprisedtherein have been inquired into and recorded at a survey or settlement, or in such other manner as the 1 [State Government] thinks sufficient. Every such record shall be presumed to be correct until the contrary is proved:

Provided that, if, in the case of any forest-land or waste-land, the 1 [State Government] thinks that such inquiry and record are necessary, but that they will occupy such length of time as in the mean time to endanger the rights of Government, the 1 [State Government] may, pending such inquiry and record, declare such land to be a protected forest, but so as not to abridge or affect any existing rights of individuals or communities.

STATE AMENDMENT

Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh (UTs).—

Section 29A.- After section 29, insert the following section–

29A. Undemarcated forests deemed to be protected forests.- (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act or any other law for the time being in force, any undemarcated forest (which means and includes all forest land other than demarcated forest which is the property of the Government of Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and is not appropriated for any specific purpose and includes all the undemarcated and berun line forest vested in the Forest Department under the provisions of section 48 of the Jammu and Kashmir Village Panchayat Act, 1958 or any other law for the time being in force), prior to the appointed day notified under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019, shall be deemed to be a protected forest under this Act.

(2) All questions decided, orders issued and records prepared in connection with the constitution of such forest as undemarcated forests shall be deemed to have been decided, issued and prepared under this Act, and the provisions of this Act relating to protected forests shall apply to forest to which the provision of sub-section (1) are applicable.

[Vide the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization (Adaptation of Central Laws) Order, 2020, notification No. S.O. 1123(E) dated (18-3-2020).]

30. Power to issue notification reserving trees, etc.—

The 1 [State Government] may, by notification in the 2 [Official Gazette],—

(a) declare any trees or class of trees in a protected forests to be reserved from a date fixed by the notification;

(b) declare that any portion of such forest specified in the notification shall be closed for such term, not exceeding thirty years, as the 1 [State Government] thinks fit, and that the rights of private persons, if any, over such portion shall be suspended during such term, provided that the remainder of such forest be sufficient, and in a locality reasonably convenient, for the due exercise of the rights suspended in the portion so closed; or

(c) prohibit, from a date fixed as aforesaid, the quarrying of stone, or the burning of lime or charcoal, or the collection or subjection to any manufacturing process, or removal of, any forestproduce in any such forest, and the breaking up or clearing for cultivation, for building, for herding cattle or for any other purpose, of any land in any such forest.

31. Publication of translation of such notification in neighbourhood.—

The Collector shall cause a translation into the local vernacular of every notification issued under section 30 to be affixed in a conspicuous place in every town and village in the neighbourhood of the forests comprised in the notification.

32. Power to make rules for protected forests.—

The 1 [State Government] may make rules to regulate the following matters, namely:—

(a) the cutting, sawing, conversion and removal of trees and timber, and the collection, manufacture and removal of forest-produce, from protected forests;

(b) the granting of licenses to the inhabitants of towns and villages in the vicinity of protected forests to take trees, timber or other forest-produce for their own use, and the production and return of such licenses by such persons;

(c) the granting of licenses to persons felling or removing trees or timber or other forest-produce from such forests for the purposes of trade, and the production and return of such licenses by such persons;

(d) the payments, if any, to be made by the persons mentioned in clauses (b) and (c) for permission to cut such trees, or to collect and remove such timber or other forest-produce;

(e) the other payments, if any, to be made by them in respect of such trees, timber and produce, and the places where such payment shall be made;

(f) the examination of forest-produce passing out of such forests;

(g) the clearing and breaking up of land for cultivation or other purposes in such forests

(h) the protection from fire of timber laying in such forests and of trees reserved under section 30;

(i) the cutting of grass and pasturing of cattle in such forests;

(j) hunting, shooting, fishing, poisoning water and setting traps or snares in such forests, and the killing or catching of elephants in such forests in areas in which the Elephants Preservation Act, 1879 (6 of 1879), is not in force;

(k) the protection and management of any portion of a forest closed under section 30; and

(l) the exercise of rights referred to in section 29.

33. Penalties for acts in contravention of notification under section 30 or of rules under section 32.—

(1) Any person who commits any of the following offences, namely:—

(a) fells, girdles, lops, taps or burns any tree reserved under section 30, or strips off the bark or leaves from, or otherwise damages,any such tree;

(b) contrary to any prohibition under section 30, quarries any stone, or burns any lime or charcoal, or collects, subjects to any manufacturing process, or removes any forest-produce;

(c) contrary to any prohibition under section 30, breaks up or clears for cultivation or any other purpose any land in any protected forest;

(d) sets fire to such forest, or kindles a fire without taking all reasonable precautions to prevent its spreading to any tree reserved under section 30, whether standing, fallen or felled, or to any closed portion of such forest;

(e) leaves burning any fire kindled by him in the vicinity of any such tree or closed portion;

(f) fells any tree or drags any timber so as to damage any tree reserved as aforesaid;

(g) permits cattle to damage any such tree;

(h) infringes any rule made under section 32; shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months or with fine which may extend to five hundred rupees, or with both.

(2) Whenever fire is caused wilfully or by gross negligence in a protected forest, the State Government may, notwithstanding that any penalty has been inflicted under this section, direct that in such forest or any portion thereof the exercise of any right of pasture or to forest-produce shall be suspended for such period as it thinks fit.

STATE AMENDMENTS

Maharashtra

Amendment of section 33 of Act XVI of 1927.—In section 33 of the principal Act, in sub-section (1), for the words “two thousand rupees” the words “five thousand rupees” shall be substituted.

[Vide Maharashtra Act 21 of 2015, s. 3].

STATE AMENDMENT

Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh (UTs).—

Section 33.-In Sub-section (1). —

(i) in clause (c), after the words “or clears”, insert the words “or attempts to break-up or clear”;

(ii) in clause (f), after the word “drags” , insert the words “or removes”;

(iii) in the long line for the words “six months, or with fine which may extend to five hundred rupees”, substitute the words “two years, or with fine which may extend to twenty-five thousand rupees”.

[Vide the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization (Adaptation of Central Laws) Order, 2020, notification No. S.O. 1123(E) dated (18-3-2020).]  

34. Nothing in this Chapter to prohibit acts done in certain cases.—

Nothing in this Chapter shall be deemed to prohibit any act done with the permission in writing of the Forest-officer, or in accordance with rules made under section 32, or, except as regards any portion of a forest closed tinder section 30, or as regards any rights the exercise of which has been suspended under section 33, in the exercise of any right recorded under section 29.