New Delhi: The Supreme Court issued a strong warning on Monday, prohibiting the Centre and state governments from reducing forest areas without providing compensation land.
The interim judgement was issued in response to a series of petitions challenging revisions to the 2023 forest conservation law, which reportedly excludes over 1.99 lakh square kilometres of forest land from the term "forest".
A two-judge bench, led by Justices B R Gavai and K Vinod Chandran, instructed the Centre to provide a progress report within three weeks. The court made it clear that it will not tolerate any reduction in forest area until compensatory land is granted, TNIE reported.
The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill was passed by Parliament in 2023. The petitions contested the amended law's constitutionality and sought to have it overturned.
The petitioners contended that the Supreme Court's 1996 Godavarman decision necessitated the conservation of forests regardless of classification or ownership. They quoted the 'India State of Forest Report 2021', which claims that total forest and tree cover make up 24.62% of the country's geographical area.