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Forest Legislations in India – A Critical Assessment

D Dhanuraj and Rahul V Kumar at
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  • In India, there is a significant demand for timber that is largely met through imports. State-led forest policies have been lax in meeting this requirement.
  • Interventions by the State to conserve and improve forest coverage have not been successful.
  • Many of the justifications of the State to intervene in forest management curtail an individual’s decision to plant and fell trees.

This policy paper examines India’s existing forestry policy.

Introduction

Forests are a useful resource to people. Commercial forest products support construction and other development activities in the economy. Production of timber in private property will be profitable not only for economic growth but also as a business venture.

However, in India, several other considerations could affect taking up timber production as a business venture on an individual’s private property. Free market exchange is interrupted by interventions from the state. In the face of the growing need for timber, the federal state has ventured into a variety of alternative measures to ensure its control over this sector.

State-sponsored social forestry, which began during the late 1970s, started as a measure to increase the forest coverage in India. But currently, there is a serious effort by the federal state to reinvent social forestry to increase the production of timber at the level of the private individual. In this context, two major questions surface while considering private timber production in India as an offshoot of state-sponsored social forestry.

  • What is the state’s logic in interfering with an individual’s decision to plant or fell a tree?
  • Does the state’s logic of increasing forest coverage as a reason for this intervention stand the test of verification?

In India, trees in the federal states are classified by the respective state departments into different categories depending on their commercial value, as well as zones that are demarcated based on ecological criteria. Cutting these categorised trees and transiting them requires the permission and presence of state officials at various levels.

Methodology

The report has tried to evaluate the role of the state by comparing state rules and legislation with stakeholder responses. Stakeholder responses were collected through extensive interviews. Planters, traders, furniture units, and forest officials were interviewed to collect responses for this comparison. Secondary data sources are also used in the analysis.

Read the Social Forestry Report here
Chairman at Centre for Public Policy Research |  + posts

Dr Dhanuraj is the Chairman of CPPR. His core areas of expertise are in international relations, urbanisation, urban transport & infrastructure, education, health, livelihood, law, and election analysis. He can be contacted by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @dhanuraj.

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Rahul V Kumar is a Research Fellow at CPPR. He has an MA in Economics and an MPhil in Applied Economics and International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi). Currently, he teaches graduate students.

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