The Forest Rights Act

Under the Forest (Conservation) Act, the Central government's permission is required before forest land can be used for non-forest uses.  In practice the government has treated this provision as if only the Centre's permission is required, and proceeded to hand over huge areas of forest and forest lands to projects and private companies without consulting or even informing those most affected - the local communities.  In law, that has now changed with the Forest Rights Act.  For more, see our page on Large Projects and Forest Land.