The concept of "Forests & Wildlife" in India is a constitutional and legislative framework, not a single act or scheme. Its foundation was laid by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1976, which moved 'Forests' and 'Protection of Wild Animals and Birds' from the State List to the Concurrent List of the Seventh Schedule, allowing both the Central and State governments to legislate on these subjects. This amendment also inserted Article 48A into the Directive Principles of State Policy, mandating the State to protect and improve the environment and safeguard forests and wildlife, and added Article 51A(g), making it a Fundamental Duty for every citizen to protect and improve the natural environment.
The framework is primarily implemented through two key acts. The Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 (WLPA), enacted to curb poaching and habitat loss, provides for the protection of wild animals, birds, and plants. It works by establishing a system of six Schedules that assign varying degrees of protection to species, with Schedule I offering absolute protection and the highest penalties for violations. The WLPA also enables the creation of protected areas like National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries. The WLPA was recently amended by the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act, 2022, which reduced the number of Schedules to four and introduced a new Schedule to align with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
The second pillar is the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 (FCA), which was enacted to check rampant deforestation. Its core mechanism, outlined in Section 2, prohibits State governments from de-reserving a forest or diverting forest land for any non-forest purpose without the prior approval of the Central Government. This centralized control was a direct response to the crisis of forest land being converted for commercial use. The FCA was recently amended by the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023, which renamed it the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam. The 2023 amendment narrowed the definition of land covered by the Act, restricting protection primarily to land notified under the Indian Forest Act, 1927, or recorded as forest after October 25, 1980, and exempted certain lands like those for national security projects within 100 km of international borders. This change effectively overturned the broad protection extended to all lands meeting the dictionary definition of a forest by the Supreme Court's 1996 judgment in T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India.