Specifics of an order

14/05/1997
Down To Earth

The Supreme Court order was issued by Justices J S Verma and B N Kripal. It stated that:
• prior approval of the Centre will be required for any non-forest activity within the area of everyforest. All ongoing activity, including mining and running saw and veneer mills, within any forest in any state of the country without the Central governments permission, had to cease forthwith;

• felling of trees in all forests will remain suspended unless approved by state governments as well as the Centre;

• each state will constitute an expert committee to Identify areas which are 'forests' irrespective of whether they are so notified or recognised under any law, and Irrespective of the ownership of the land of such forest identify areas which earlier were forests, but are at present degraded, denuded or cleared; and identify areas covered by plantations.

• each state will file a report within two months listing the number of sawmills and plywood mills in the state, their capacities, proximity to forests, source of timber, etc;

• each state will, form within a month, an expert committee to assess sustainable capacity of forests of the state, the number of existing sawmills that may be sustained without harming the environment, and the optimum distance at which the sawmills should be located;

• there will be a complete ban on the movement of cut trees and timber from any of the northeastern states to any other state in the country; and, e there will be a complete ban on felling In Tirap and Changlang districts of Arunachal Pradesh.

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