Consider the following statements about the Forest (Conservation) Act,...
The Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, is an Act of the Parliament of India to provide for the conservation of the forests and for the matters connected therewith or ancillary or incidental thereto. It was further amended in 1988. This law extends to the whole of India. It was enacted by the Parliament of India to control further deforestation of the forest areas in India. The Act came into force in 1980. Section 2 of the Act restriction on the State Government for is about the de-reservation of the forests or use of the forest land for non-forest purpose. It prohibits the State Government, except the Central Government, for issuing orders directing:
(i) that any (within the meaning of the expression "reserved forest" prior permission from reserved forest in any law for the time being in force in that State) or any portion thereof, shall cease to be reserved;
(ii) that any forest land or any portion thereof may be used for any non-forest purpose;
(iii) that any forest land or any portion thereof may be assigned by way of lease or otherwise to any private person or to any authority, any other managed or corporation, organization agency or not owned, controlled by the Government;
(iv) that any forest land or any portion thereof may be cleared of trees, which have grown naturally in that land or portion, for the purpose of using it for re-afforestation. As provided in the explanation, "non-forest purpose" means the breaking up or clearing of any forest land or portion thereof for:
(a) the cultivation of tea, coffee, spices, rubber, horticultural crops or medicinal plants;
(b) any purpose other than reafforestation; but does not palms, oil-bearing plants, include any work relating or ancillary to conservation, development and management of the forests and the wildlife, namely, the establishment of check-posts, fire lines, wireless communications and construction of fencing, bridges and culverts, dams, waterholes, trench marks, boundary marks, pipelines or other like purposes. Section 3 of the Act deals with the constitution of the Advisory Committee. It gives the Central Government the power to constitute a committee of such number of persons, as it may deem fit, to advise the Government with regard to:
(i) the grant of approval for the purpose which is prohibited in the Section of this Act; or
(ii) any other matter connected with the conservation of the forests, which may be referred to it by the Central Government. Section 3A deals with the penalty for the contravention of the provisions of the Act. It states that whoever contravenes or abets the contravention of any of the provisions of Section 2, shall be punishable with simple imprisonment for a period, which may extend to 15 days. Section 3B deals with the cases in which the offence is made by the Authorities or the Government Departments. In such cases, that the Head of the Department shall be considered guilty, it says, although if he proves that it was done without his knowledge or that he exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of such offence. Section 4 deals with the power to make that: The Central Government may, by notification in the rules. It states Official Gazette, make rules for carrying out the provisions of this Act.