The Supreme Court on Monday stated that prior approval of the Court is needed to notify forest land as zoos or safari parks under the Forest Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2023..A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra ordered that,"We issue an interim order to the effect that any proposal for the establishment of zoos and safaris referred to in the Wile Life Protection Act 1972, enacted by the Government or any authority in forest areas other than protected areas, shall not be finally approved by the States/Union Territories, save and except with the prior permission of this Court. Where any such proposal is sought to be implemented, this Court shall be moved by the Union Government or, as the case may be, the competent authority for the prior approval of this Court," the Court directed.The bench has also asked State governments and Union Territory (UT) administrations to stick to the existing definition of "forests" till the rules to identify the same under the amended Act are in place.States and UTs were directed to constitute and forward reports of expert committees on identification of forest land in compliance with the decision in the TN Godavarman case."The expert committees constituted shall duly bear in mind that work of identification carried on but it shall not preclude the committee to add forest land which is worthy of being protected," the Court ordered.The matter will be taken up next in April..Interestingly, the bench also noted that another bench of the apex court presided by Justice BR Gavai has also been dealing with a petition challenging the Uttarakhand government’s proposal to have a specialised zoo in the buffer area of Jim Corbett national park.Justice Gavai led bench had also flagged its concern about the CJI led bench hearing a similar case and had told during one of the hearings that there must be no conflicting orders.The CJI bench clarified in its order that that its interim direction to obtain prior permission of the court before notifying an area as a zoo or safari "will hold the field only till the final judgment of the co-ordinate Bench" (Justice Gavai's bench)."Necessarily therefore the judgment of the coordinate Bench shall govern the arena, once it is pronounced," CJI led bench order has clarified..The Court was hearing a plea by ecological rights NGO Vanakshakti and a group of retired civil servants challenging the constitutional validity of the recent amendments to the Forest Conservation Act.The amendments relax provisions prohibiting developmental activities.Allowing megaprojects to come up in the wilderness and forests could disrupt complex ecological systems and threaten the survival of endangered lifeforms, the petitioner submitted.Further, the amendments significantly reduce the legal protections earlier accorded to vast tracts of forest lands in India, it was claimed. The same will now be exposed to deforestation and irreversible damage.Moreover, the petitioner argued that due parliamentary procedure and consultation was not followed while enacting the law.It was stressed that human-wildlife conflict will increase as a result of opening forest land for non-forest use. The blanket exemption of protective rules for forest land within 100 km of international borders was also assailed.In response to the plea, the Central government in December last year informed the top court that the recent amendments do not dilute the meaning of "forest", and no precipitative action would be taken to enforce the same until necessary guidelines governing are notified.Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati, who appeared for the Central government, reiterated that the 'forest' as its dictionary meaning envisages, would remain protected."We got the idea that the motive was not to declassify the forest but to document them," the CJI had remarked during the course of the hearing.Advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for the petitioners, argued,"28 per cent of the forest in the country is not notified or recognised by the law and thus 2 lakh square kilometres are not recorded. This (amendment) Act removes this forest area from the purview of the Forest Conservation Act."The Court responded,"This cannot be allowed to go on. Almost 2 lakh square kilometres of forest land will be declassified."However, ASG Bhati clarified,"The idea is not to exclude but to include everything. We are encouraging the States to identify the same - unclassified forest lands etc. This is to bring the forest lands under the fold of the Act.".Besides Bhushan, Senior Advocate Prashanto Chandra Sen too appeared for the petitioners. .[Read Order].[Read live courtroom exchange here]
