A five-member committee has been constituted to prepare draft forest manual for J&K.
An official said the constitution of the committee has been necessitated owing to the enactment of J&K Reorganisation Act-2019, which repealed some of the legislations governing forests and wildlife of erstwhile state of J&K and extended all central Acts to the Union Territory.
“This necessitates the revision of Forest Law compendium complied by the J&K Forest Department in 2008,” said Principal Chief Conservator Forests, J&K, Mohit Gera.
Gera said the committee would be headed by Chief Conservator Forest, Jammu, Ramesh Kumar. “The committee will compile all the Acts, Rules, SROs, SOs, notifications, and circulars governing the department of Forest Wildlife in J&K,” he said.
Gera said the committee will submit the draft forest manual within a month. “The manual will be made available on mobile-app of every official in the forest and wildlife department to ensure implementation of rules.”
“We had J&K Forest Conservation Act of 1997 which stands repealed now. The Central Forest Conservation Act-1980 has been implemented in J&K. Similarly, J&K Forest Act has been repealed, and Indian Forest Act has been implemented,” he said.
Gera, however, said they have got Indian Forest Act amended “as per the suitability of J&K forests”.