New Delhi:
The Supreme Court on Monday stopped the Center and the states from taking any such step till further orders, which reduced the forest area. The bench of Justice BR Gawai and Justice of Vinod Chandran was hearing the petitions against the amendment of the 2023 Forest Protection Act.
The bench said, “We will not allow anything that reduces the forest area.” We instruct that till further orders, the Center and no state will take such a step that reduces the forest land, until the compensatory land is provided by the Center and the state …. ‘
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Center, said that she will file a reply on the petitions filed in this case within three weeks. Bhati said that a commodity status report will also be presented before the court before the next hearing.
A lawyer appearing in the case said that the arguments have been fulfilled and the issue raised in the petitions is related to the amendment in the forest protection law of 2023. The bench has fixed the hearing for March 4.
In February last year, the apex court took cognizance of the request that under the amended law of 2023 on forest protection, about 1.99 lakh square kilometers of forest land has been excluded from the purview of “One” and it It has been made available for other purposes.
The bench said that any new proposal to open the zoo on forest land or start “safari” will now require the approval of the Supreme Court. The bench directed the state governments and union territories to provide the details of forest land to the Center by 31 March, 2024 to the Center.
The apex court said that all the details about “forests like forests, uninterrupted forest land and community forest land” to be provided by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change are on their website till April 15 last year Will put