A forest is generally defined as a plant community predominantly of trees and other woody vegetation. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of United Nations defines forest as land with a tree canopy of more than 10% and area of more than 0.5 ha. Forest is determined not only by presence of trees but also by the absence of other predominant land uses. In India, however, legal connotation of forest is employed. An area of land recorded as forest in revenue records or proclaimed to be forest under a forest law or Act is described as forest.

The recorded forest area is categorized into "Reserved Forest", "Protected Forest" and "Unclassed Forest. These are defined below:

Reserved Forest : An area notified under the provisions of Indian Forest Act or State Forest Acts having full degree of protection. In reserved forests all activities are prohibited unless permitted.

Protected Forest : An area notified under the provisions of Indian Forest Act or the state Forest Acts having limited degree of protection. In protected Forests all activities are permitted unless prohibited.

Unclassed Forest : An area recorded as forest but not included in reserved or protected category. Ownership status of such forests varies from state to state.

The recorded forest area in some states is as follows: (Area in sq.km)

(Ref.: State of forest report 2001, forest Survey of India)

The recorded forest area in some states is as follows: 2003 (Area in sq.km)

Source: State of Forest Report 2003, Forest Survey of India

Forest fringe villages and forest dependant population

Note: Figures in brackets are the estimates of Forest Survey of India

Policies relating to forest

Inter-community conflicts over boundaries and access rights have increased as traditional (and even formal) access rights of different groups have not been taken into account while initiating JFM. There is often a conflict between nomadic graziers and settled community wherever forest patches that fall within the traditional migration routes have been “closed” under JFM by the settled community. The new guidelines issued by the ministry of environment and forest (MoEF) suggests formation of multi-stakeholder working groups. While such groups already exist in some states, their performance is far from satisfactory.

Forest legislation and policy in India
Indian Forest Act, 1878

According to the 1878 Act, the State was recognised as sole proprietor of classified forest lands. State forest lands were loosely defined as lands that did not fall under ‘continuous’ cultivation or ‘permanent’ settlement. Traditional forest practices, including grazing, forest-based gathering and forest-based rotational agriculture were rejected as a basis for private property rights. Previously defined rights of access and use were to be redefined by the government as ‘privileges’ for specific tribes, castes, villages and organisations. (Lynch and Talbot 1995; Poffenberger and Singh 1996)

Indian Forest Act, 1927

The 1927 Act incorporated few substantive changes over the 1878 Act and it remains the legislative basis for state forest management today. The Indian government adopted the 1927 Act after it gained independence. At this time, however, and according to the newly enacted Indian Constitution, forests were placed under the so-called ‘state list’. In 1976, the Indian Forest Act ensured that the Centre and states shared responsibility and control over forest matters. Presently, the government of India does have the power to legislate on forestry issues but only after consulting the states.

Forest Conservation Act, 1980

With the passage of the Forest Conservation Act, the central government reasserted some of its control over forest-based resources because the 1980 Act restricts the state government’s power to de-reserve a forest, and it restricts the use of forestland for non-forestry purposes (WWF 1997) without the prior approval of the central government.

National Forest Policy of 1952

Though the prior distinction of ‘rights’ vs. ‘privileges’ is not detailed in the 1927 Act, the concept has persisted in various forms and remains the source of a deep-seated antagonism between the state and forest-dependent communities. The post-independence National Forest Policy of 1952 personified this antagonism when it stated that, “the accident of a village being situated close to a forest does not prejudice the right of the country as a whole to receive the benefits of a national asset” (Poffenberger and Singh 1996:61). Commercial exploitation and degradation of India’s forests increased dramatically after 1947 in a post-independent India. Indeed, the 1952 National Forest Policy set out guidelines which were, for the most part, directed towards the supply of cheap timber and non-timber forest products for state-sponsored industrialisation and modernisation (Corbridge and Jewitt 1997; Kuchli 1997). The inability to regulate access to forest lands, and the popular resistance that exclusionary policies and laws has engendered, has forced a number of ‘re-evaluations’ of the forest sector’s legal framework and the place of India’s forest-dependent communities within it (Lynch and Talbot 1995). These re-evaluations resulted in the social forestry programme of the seventies and the joint forestry programme of the nineties, described below.

National Forest Policy, 1988

The National Forest Policy, 1988, envisages people’s involvement in the development and protection of forests. The requirements of people living in and near forests for fuel wood, fodder and small timber, are to be treated as first priority and forest communities should be motivated to identify themselves with the development and protection of forests from which they derive benefits (Poffenberger and Singh 1996, emphasis added). The policy goes on to state that the principle aim must be to ensure environmental stability and maintenance of an ecological balance which is vital for sustenance of all life forms, human, plant or animal. The derivation of economic benefit must be subordinated to this principal aim (Krishnaswamy 1994).

COMMUNITY FORESTRY PROGRAMMES
The Social Forestry Programme

Under the social forestry programme in 1976, an attempt was made to reconcile industrial forestry and the basic, forest-related needs of rural communities. The state identified 175 million acres of ‘wastelands’, deforested or overgrazed private and communal lands, to be made available for the programme. A parastatal organisation, the National Wasteland Development Board, was set up as the co-ordinating or lead agency. In terms of meeting tree planting targets, most social forestry projects were extremely successful. The drive to plant trees was unparalleled. Experience with social forestry projects in India, however, has shown that these institutions are typically too large, heterogeneous, politicised and far removed from the resource to serve as effective management structures (Sarin 1996). It is important to note, however, that social forestry was instrumental in introducing a community-extension orientation into state forest departments that adopted the programme.

Joint Forest Management (JFM)

Briefly, JFM is an evolving policy-based programme which sets out to establish management ‘partnerships’ between local forest-dependent communities and the state for the sustainable management and joint benefit sharing of public forest land (Sarin 1995). JFM does not involve the transfer of ownership over forests, but attempts instead to restructure the formal system of access, decision-making, and sharing of benefits to account for the needs of local communities. Twenty-two states have issued their resolutions for JFM.