💨 Abstract

The Supreme Court of India directed all states and union territories to form special investigation teams to check if any reserved forest land was allocated to private entities for non-forestry purposes. The court ordered the recovery of such lands, handing them over to forest departments or, if not feasible, recovering the land's cost for forest development. Chief secretaries and administrators must ensure these transfers within a year. The court highlighted the misuse of forest land for commercial purposes, citing a case from Pune.

Courtesy: theprint.in