Centre notifies forest conservation rules amendment

THe unification surround ministry has notified caravan (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Amendment Rules, 2025 which do important amendments to the forest conservation rules 2023.Among several key amendments, the new rules, notified on August 31, said the Centre can decide what works can be taken up on various linear infrastructure projects before final forest clearance is granted.The new rules define “working permission” as permission granted to linear projects after in-principle, or Stage -I, approval to mobilise resources or to commence the preliminary project works other than black topping and concretisation of roads, laying of railway tracks, charging of transmission lines, etc. Or as specified by the Central Government.”Whereas the 2023 rules specified that “working permission” means permission granted to linear projects before final approval to mobilise the resources to commence the preliminary project work other than black topping, concretisation, laying of railway tracks, charging of transmission lines, etc. Or as specified in the in-principle approval.Further, the new rules have defined what is final or Stage-II approval. It means the prior approval of the Central Government granted under sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Adhiniyam after receipt of satisfactory compliance report of the conditions stipulated in the in-principle or Stage-I approval from the State Government; while “in-principle or Stage-I approval” means the preliminary approval of the Central Government to allow the use of forest land for a given purpose specified under sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Adhiniyam subject to the compliance of conditions stipulated therein.The notification also provides exemptions to certain sectors especially “defence”, “strategic” and “national importance”, “public interest” etc to submit their applications offline.“Provided that for projects related to defence, strategic and national importance, exceptional cases related to public interest or emergent nature, the user agency may be permitted to submit an application for prior approval through offline mode.” it states.Further special dispensation has been provided to critical minerals sector for compensatory afforestation. Mining of Critical and Strategic Minerals, as specified in Part-D of the First Schedule of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 and minerals specified by the Ministry of Mines out of the list of minerals included in the Seventh Schedule of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 will get special dispensation for raising compensatory afforestation over degraded forest land, minimum double in extent.The notification also makes declaring compensatory afforestation lands as “protected forests” optional, which earlier was a must. It states the words, figures and brackets “same shall be notified as protected forest under section 29 of Indian Forest Act, 1927 or under any other law for the time being in force” to be substituted with the words: ‘‘same shall be transferred and mutated as forest land in favour of the Forest Department or notified as protected forest under section 29 of Indian Forest Act, 1927 or under any other law for the time being in force...” “It is important to see if these rules exempt forest departments from notifying compensatory afforestation as protected forest or not,” an expert said.