Lawgist29Protected forests
(1) The 1[State Government] may, by notification in the 2[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 3[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 3[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 3[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) and Vide Union Territory of Ladakh Reorganisation (Adaptation of Central Laws) Order, 2020, notification No. S.O. 3774(E), dated (23-10-2020).]
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1. Subs. by the A.O. 1950, for "Provincial Government".
2. Subs., ibid, for "Local Official Gazette".
3. Subs. by the A.O. 1950, for "Provincial Government".
- 1 Short title and extent
- 2 Interpretation clause
- 3 Power to reserve forests
- 4 Notification by State Government
- 5 Bar of accrual of forest-rights
- 6 Proclamation by Forest Settlement-officer
- 7 Inquiry by Forest Settlement-officer
- 8 Powers of Forest Settlement-officer
- 9 Extinction of rights
- 10 Treatment of claims relating to practice of shifting cultivation
- 11 Power to acquire land over which right is claimed
- 12 Order on claims to rights of pasture or to forest-produce
- 13 Record to be made by Forest Settlement-officer
- 14 Record where he admits claim
- 15 Exercise of rights admitted
- 16 Commutation of rights
- 17 Appeal from order passed under section 11, section 12, section 15 or section 16
- 18 Appeal under section 17
- 19 Pleaders
- 20 Notification declaring forest reserved
- 21 Publication of translation of such notification in neighbourhood of forest
- 22 Power to revise arrangement made under section 15 or section 18
- 23 No right acquired over reserved forest, except as here provided
- 24 Rights not to be alienated without sanction
- 25 Power to stop ways and water-courses in reserved forests
- 26 Acts prohibited in such forests
- 27 Power to declare forest no longer reserved
- 28 Formation of village-forests
- 29 Protected forests
- 30 Power to issue notification reserving trees, etc
- 31 Publication of translation of such notification in neighbourhood
- 32 Power to make rules for protected forests
- 33 Penalties for acts in contravention of notification under section 30 or of rules under section 32
- 34 Nothing in this Chapter to prohibit acts done in certain cases
- 35 Protection of forests for special purposes
- 36 Power to assume management of forests
- 37 Expropriation of forests in certain cases
- 38 Protection of forests at request of owners
- 39 Power to impose duty on timber and other forest-produce
- 40 Limit not to apply to purchase-money or royalty
- 41 Power to make rules to regulate transit of forest-produce
- 41A Powers of Central Government as to movements of timber across customs frontiers
- 42 Penalty for breach of rules made under section 41
- 43 Governments and Forest-officers not liable for damage to forest-produce at depot
- 44 All persons bound to aid in case of accident at depot
- 45 Certain kinds of timber to be deemed property of Government until title thereto proved, and may be collected accordingly
- 46 Notice to claimants of drift-timber
- 47 Procedure on claim preferred to such timber
- 48 Disposal of unclaimed timber
- 49 Government and its officers not liable for damage to such timber
- 50 Payments to be made by claimant before timber is delivered to him
- 51 Power to make rules and prescribe penalties
- 52 Seizure of property liable to confiscation
- 53 Power to release property seized under section 52
- 54 Procedure thereupon
- 55 Forest-produce, tools, etc., when liable to confiscation
- 56 Disposal, on conclusion of trial for forest-offence, of produce in respect of which it was committed
- 57 Procedure when offender not known, or cannot be found
- 58 Procedure as to perishable property seized under section 52
- 59 Appeal from orders under section .55, section 56 or section 57
- 60 Property when to vest in Government
- 61 Saving of power to release property seized
- 62 Punishment for wrongful seizure
- 63 Penalty for counterfeiting or defacing marks on trees and timber and for altering boundary-marks
- 64 Power to arrest without warrant
- 65 Power to release on a bond a person arrested
- 66 Power to prevent commission of offence
- 67 Power to try offences summarily
- 68 Power to compound offences
- 69 Presumption that forest-produce belongs to Government
- 70 Cattle-trespass Act, 1871, to apply
- 71 Power to alter fines fixed under that Act
- 72 State Government may invest Forest-officers with certain powers
- 73 Forest-officers deemed public servants
- 74 Indemnity for acts done in good faith
- 75 Forest-officers not to trade
- 76 Additional powers to make rules
- 77 Penalties for breach of rules
- 78 Rules when to have force of law
- 79 Persons bound to assist Forest-officers and police-officers
- 80 Management of forests the joint property of Government and other persons
- 81 Failure to perform service for which a share in produce of Government forest is enjoyed
- 82 Recovery of money due to Government
- 83 Lien on forest-produce for such money
- 84 Land required under this Act to be deemed to be needed for a public purpose under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894
- 85 Recovery of penalties due under bond
- 85A Saving for rights of Central Government
- 86 [Repealed.]
