Deemed Forests

August 17, 2023

Odisha government has withdrawn controversial ‘deemed forest’ order in which district officials were told that ‘deemed forests’ as a category would cease to exist under the recently amended Forest Conservation Amendment Act 2023.
Deemed forest is land which appears to be a forest but is not notified as forest land by the Centre or the state government.
The concept came into existence following a Supreme Court order in the TN Godavarman case in 1996, which directed the state government to record such land.