What is in news : Forest minister of Karnataka recently announced in the Assembly that the government will reduce the original extent of deemed forests from 10 lakh hectares to 3.3 lakh hectares.

DEEMED FOREST

• Deemed Forests – Land Tracts that appear to be a “forest”, but have not been notified so by the government or in historical records
• No law including the Forest Conservation Act 1980 does not properly define Deemed forest.
• In the T N Godavarman Thirumalpad case 1996, the Supreme Court (SC) accepted a wide definition of forests under the Act and held that the word ‘forest’ must be understood according to its dictionary meaning.
• The freedom to define which tracts of forest qualify as forest has been the prerogative of States since 1996.

Deemed forest in Karnataka :

• An expert committee constituted by the state government identified ‘deemed forests’ as:
  • Land having the characteristic of forests irrespective of the ownership.
  • Thickly wooded areas of the Revenue Department, not handed over to the Forest Department.
  • Thickly wooded areas recommended to be handed over to the Forest Department.
  • Thickly wooded land distributed to grantees but not cultivated.
  • Thickly wooded plantations of the Forest Department.
  • Land Coverage: The expert committee reports in 1997 and 2002 identified 43.18 lakh hectares of forest land for conservation in Karnataka, which included 33.23 lakh hectares notified forest area as per forest records and 9.94 lakh hectares ‘deemed forests’.