The Forest (Conservation) Act was enacted in 1980 by the Indian Parliament to help conserve forests and control deforestation. It requires state governments to get central government approval for diverting forest land to non-forest uses. The Act has succeeded in reducing the rate of forest land diversion from 1.43 lakh ha/year prior to 1980 to around 15,000 ha/year currently. Several amendments have been made to the Act along with guidelines and rules to simplify procedures and ensure compliance. The Supreme Court has also used public interest litigation to balance forest conservation with tribal rights and wildlife protection.

1.  Forestry:
• India is one of the ten
most forest rich countries
• Contributed 22% in
country’s area and 1.7%
to GDP In 2002. In 2010,
the contribution to GDP
dropped to 0.9%
Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980
• enacted by Parliament in the Thirty-
first Year of the Republic of India
• The Forest (Conservation) Act,
1980 an Act of the Parliament of
India to provide for the conservation
of forests and for matters connected
therewith or ancillary or incidental
thereto. It was further amended in
1988. This law extends to the whole
of India except the State of Jammu
and Kashmir. It was enacted
by Parliament of India to control
further deforestation of Forest Areas
in India. The act came into force on
25 October 1980. It has five section.
History:
Indian forest act 1927(reserved, protected &
village forests)
Indian forest policy in 1951(focused on revenue)
In 1992, 73rd, 74th amendments gives state the
ability to provide power to local panchayats

2. • Section 1 of the Act explains Short Title, Extent, and the Date of
commencement
• Section 2 of the act is about the restriction on the State Government for
dereservation of forests or use of forest land for non-forest purpose.
"non-forest purpose" means the breaking up or clearing of any forest
land or portion thereof for- (a) the cultivation of tea, coffee, horticultural
crops; (b) any purpose other than reafforestation
• Section 3 of the Act deals with constitution of Advisory Committee. It
gives Central Government the power to constitute a committee of such
number of person as it may deem fit to advise the Government.
• Section 3A deals with Penalty for contravention of the provisions of the
Act.
• Section 3B deals with cases in which the offence is made by Authorities
or Government Departments
• Section 4 deals with power to make rules. It states that The Central
Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, makes rules for
carrying out the provisions of this Act.
• Section 5 deals with repealing and saving. The Forest (Conservation)
Ordinance, 1980 is hereby replaced.

3. The Act has succeeded in controlling the
indiscriminate release of forest land for
non forestry purposes. Prior to 1980, the
rate of diversion of forest lands for non
forestry purposes was about 1.43 lakh
ha. per annum. But, with the advent of the
Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, the rate
of diversion of forest lands has come
down to around 15000 ha. per annum
and mostly diversion of forest land is
allowed to meet the developmental needs
for Drinking water projects, Irrigation
projects etc
State Advisory Groups (SAGs) :-
The State Advisory Groups (SAGs)
constituted by the Ministry of
Environment & Forests,
Government of India, under the
Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980
shall meet according to the
timetable
To monitor the effective implementation of the
compensatory afforestation in the country, an
authority named as "Compensatory Afforestation
Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA)"
is being constituted at the national level. A
monitoring cell is also being set up in the Ministry
of Environment & Forests to monitor the movement
of proposals at various stages and the compliance of
the conditions stipulated in the forestry clearances
by the user agencies.
The, guidelines have been issued
under the Act from time to time, to
simplify the procedures, to cut
down delays and to make the Act
more user friendly. To ensure this,
recently, new rules under this Act
have been framed and notified
on 10/1/2003 by the Ministry of
Environment and Forests.

4. Through the tool of PIL
(Public Interest
Litigation) the Supreme
Court had dealt with
variety of issues related
to conservation of forest,
preservation and
protection of wildlife,
protecting the rights of
tribal people and thus
balancing the symbiotic
relationship between the
forest dwellers and the
goal of forest
conservation
Carbon stocks in forests
The forest sector could be a source or a sink of carbon. Forest
carbon stock includes biomass and soil carbon pools. Biomass
carbon can be further disaggregated into aboveground and
belowground biomass and dead organic matter. Change in forest
carbon stock between two time periods is an indicator of the net
emissions of CO2 from the sector
Factors contributing to stabilization of carbon stocks in
Indian forests
Compensatory afforestation
According to Forest Conservation Act, 1980, when after careful
consideration forest land is released for any infrastructure
projects, it is mandatory for compensatory plantations to be
raised on an equivalent non-forested
The carbon stock in existing forests is projected to be nearly
stable over the next 25 year period at 8.79 GtC. However, if the
current rate of afforestation and reforestation is assumed to
continue, the carbon stock could increase from 8.79 GtC in
2006 to 9.75 GtC by 2030 – an increase of 11%.
carbon flux is the amount
of carbon exchanged
between Earth's
carbon pools measured in
units of gigatonnes
of carbon per year (GtC/yr)

5. • References
• "Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 with Amendments Made in 1988“ envfor.nic.in
• http://www.moef.nic.in/division/introduction
• IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS) Volume 13, Issue 4 (Jul. - Aug.
2013)
• The Forest Conservation in India and the Role of Indian Supreme Court: A Critical
Analysis. Dr. Madhuri Parikh Asst. Professor, Institute of Law, Nirma University,
Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.
• Forest conservation, afforestation and reforestation in India: Implications for
forest carbon stocks
• Article in Current science · July 2008
• N. H. Ravindranath1, Rajiv Kumar Chaturvedi and Indu K. Murthy
• Centre for Sustainable Technologies, and Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of
Science, Bangalore 560 012, India
Presented by :
Naincy Sharma
Id no. 2017002056