The Tamil Nadu Preservation of Private Forests Act, 1949

What the Act governs

The Tamil Nadu Preservation of Private Forests Act, 1949 applies to forests in estates under the Tamil Nadu Estates Land Act, 1908 and to qualifying private forests in other parts of Tamil Nadu. The text explains that a private forest exceeding 2 hectares does not lose that status merely because part of it is cultivated, trees have been cut, or it contains rocks, roads, tanks or rivers.

The Tamil Nadu Preservation of Private Forests Act, 1949 does not apply to reserved forests constituted under the Tamil Nadu Forest Act, 1882 or to lands at the disposal of the Government as defined in that Act.

Who may be affected

The Tamil Nadu Preservation of Private Forests Act, 1949 affects private forest owners, prospective buyers, mortgagees, lessees and others entitled to possess and enjoy a forest. It may also affect people exercising customary or prescriptive rights in a forest.

The Act defines forest broadly to include waste or communal land containing trees, shrubs and reeds, pasture land, and other classes of land declared by the State Government through a Tamil Nadu Government Gazette notification.

Main controls

The Tamil Nadu Preservation of Private Forests Act, 1949 provides that:

• An owner must obtain the Committee's prior sanction before selling, mortgaging, leasing or otherwise transferring the whole or part of a forest.
• Specified transfers made in breach of that requirement are null and void.
• Prior Committee permission is required to cut trees or reeds, denude the forest, or do anything likely to reduce its usefulness as a forest.
• The usual or customary collection and removal of forest produce other than trees, timber and reeds may be dealt with for a period not exceeding two years.
• The State Government may exempt a forest, class of forests or class of trees from some or all of these controls.
• The State Government may prohibit or regulate acts detrimental to forest preservation and regulate customary or prescriptive rights through a Gazette notification.

Administration, appeals and penalties

The Tamil Nadu Preservation of Private Forests Act, 1949 permits district Committees chaired by the District Collector, with forest, revenue, agriculture and district administration officials. A person aggrieved by a specified sanction or permission decision may appeal in writing to the State Government within two months of receiving it.

Contravention may be punished with imprisonment up to two years, a fine up to five thousand rupees, or both. A prosecution requires the Committee's sanction. The Act also preserves specified earlier actions, liabilities, penalties and prosecutions under the Tamil Nadu Preservation of Private Forests Act, 1946 and the Tamil Nadu Preservation of Private Forests Ordinance, 1940.