Environment and Disaster Management › Environmental law and institutions
हिन्दी — Read in HindiForest laws and forest rights
The Indian Forest Act, the definition of forest, the gram sabha and minor forest produce. Prelims has asked who initiates the recognition of forest rights and which ministry is nodal for the Act.
Foundation note: Forest rights and forest clearance: the two tracks
Showing 2 of 6 articles, those that changed from 1 to 31 August 2026.Show all
The Agasthyamalai evictions
Copy link to The Agasthyamalai evictionsPrelims and Mains
The Agasthyamalai landscape of Tamil Nadu covers the Kalakad Mundanthurai and Srivilliputhur Megamalai tiger reserves and the Kanyakumari Wildlife Sanctuary, and lies within the Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve.
- An encroacher and a recognised rights holder can be standing on the same patch of forest, and an order to clear one of them reaches the other.
- The Central Empowered Committee is the body the Supreme Court set up to examine forest and wildlife matters and report to it.
What changed
11 Aug 2026New
- The Supreme Court ordered time bound eviction of encroachments across the landscape on a Central Empowered Committee report, and barred fresh diversion of forest land there until they are cleared.
- Among the encroachers were 118 serving or retired government employees.
- Critics say the notices ignore the Forest Rights Act.
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2019: which protected areas lie in the Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve
Ecotourism in forests
Copy link to Ecotourism in forestsPrelims and Mains
Ecotourism facilities inside forests are governed by the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, under which an ecotourism facility inside a forest counted as a non forest use and needed diversion approval.
- The 2023 amendment placed ecotourism facilities among forestry and conservation activities, so the same construction no longer takes that route.
What changed
19 Aug 2026Newnewly added
- The sector has grown from a few crore rupees in two or three reserves in the early 2000s to an estimated $11 billion by 2025.
- Sharing of revenue with communities rests on convention and not law, and the share passed on differs from State to State.
- Carrying capacity is set administratively.
Mains: a change of definition in a statute, and not any project clearance, opened wilderness zones to construction.