VidBodh AcademyThe art and science of civil services preparation
Student login

Environment › Environmental law and institutions

Forest laws and forest rights

Forest law and the rights of forest dwellers: the Indian Forest Act, forest clearance and the definition of forest, the Forest Rights Act and 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.

UPSC has asked

  • Prelims 2021: moringa and tamarind: family, origin and minor forest produce

Showing 2 of 9 subjects, those that changed from 1 to 15 August 2026.Show all

The Agasthyamalai evictions

Copy link to The Agasthyamalai evictions

Prelims and Mains

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 Supreme Court ordered time bound eviction of encroachments in the Agasthyamalai landscape of Tamil Nadu, acting on a Central Empowered Committee report.
  • The landscape covers the Kalakad Mundanthurai and Srivilliputhur Megamalai tiger reserves and the Kanyakumari Wildlife Sanctuary.
  • Fresh diversion of forest land there is barred until the encroachments are cleared.
  • Among the encroachers were 118 serving or retired government employees.
  • Critics say the notices ignore the Forest Rights Act.

What changed

  1. 11 Aug 2026

    The Hindu, 11 Aug 2026: New Agasthyamalai eviction orders continue to silence Forest Rights Act (opens in a new tab)

UPSC has asked

  • Prelims 2019: which protected areas lie in the Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve

Rajasthan Trees (Protection) Bill

Copy link to Rajasthan Trees (Protection) Bill

Prelims and Mains

Felling on private and other non forest land is left to State law, which is where a State's tree protection Act does its work.

  • The Rajasthan Cabinet cleared a Trees (Protection) Bill giving special protection to 29 tree species, the khejri among them.
  • The khejri (Prosopis cineraria) is a drought hardy leguminous tree of the Thar desert and the State tree of Rajasthan.

What changed

  1. 14 Aug 2026

    The Hindu, 14 Aug 2026: Rajasthan Cabinet approves Bills for Uniform Civil Code, protection of trees (opens in a new tab)

Also filed elsewhere

  • Limestone mining at Jafrabad · on Big cats

    The Jafrabad lions live on the coast, well away from Gir, and what keeps them part of the same population is the strip of forest in between.