India’s Forest Land Diversion Sparks Legal Controversy
The Government of India has approved the clearance of over 8,500 hectares of forest land in the first half of 2025. This move has raised concerns due to a Supreme Court order prohibiting forest land reduction without safeguards. The approvals include areas legally protected under earlier court directives. The issue centres on the misuse of compensatory afforestation (CA) and the recent Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023.
Recent Forest Land Diversion Approvals
Between February and June 2025, 8,518.23 hectares of forest land were approved for clearing. This area is roughly four times the size of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. Approvals came from three statutory bodies – Regional Empowered Committees (REC), Forest Advisory Committee (FAC), and the Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL). The REC approved 348.96 hectares, the FAC 4,711.91 hectares, and the NBWL 3,457.37 hectares, including protected areas like national parks.
Categories of Forest Land and Legal Concerns
The approvals include degraded forests, revenue forests, and unclassed forests. These categories have legal protection from previous Supreme Court orders, notably the 1996 Godavarman judgment. However, the 2023 amendment exempts unrecorded and deemed forests from the Forest Conservation Act’s protective scope. This legal change has allowed clearance in areas previously safeguarded, raising questions about the amendment’s impact on forest conservation.
Compensatory Afforestation and Its Criticism
Compensatory afforestation (CA) is intended to balance forest loss by planting trees on non-forest land. Yet, CA is now being permitted on forest land itself, including degraded and unclassed forests. Experts argue this leads to double destruction – clearing natural forests and degrading other forest areas for plantations. These plantations often have limited ecological value compared to natural forests, affecting biodiversity and ecosystem health.
Types of Projects Approved for Forest Diversion
Most forest clearances in 2025 relate to infrastructure and development projects. These include stone and granite quarrying, road construction, irrigation, railways, transmission lines, cellphone towers, and defence installations. Defence projects alone got clearance for 329 hectares, mainly in Leh-Ladakh and Sikkim. The government’s approval of such projects reflects the tension between development needs and forest conservation.
Forest Cover Trends and Government Data
India added 16,630 sq km of forest cover between 2013 and 2023, mostly outside recorded forest areas on private or non-forest land. However, 92,989 sq km of forest was degraded in the same period. Much of the increase came from commercial plantations with low ecological value. Between 2014-15 and 2023-24, 173,396.87 hectares of forest land were diverted for non-forest use under the Forest Conservation Act and related laws.
Supreme Court Directives
The Supreme Court’s February 2025 directive forbids reducing forest land without identifying compensatory land first. Despite this, compensatory afforestation is being allowed on forest land itself. Petitioners argue this violates the 1996 Godavarman order and the Court’s own rulings. Critics warn that the 2023 amendment weakens forest protections and promotes misleading claims about afforestation efforts.
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