What May Not Be Done in a Reserved Forest

In one line

Section 26 is a list of twelve things a person may not do in a reserved forest, and it is the section under which almost every forest prosecution in India is brought.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 21 requires the section 20 notification to be published in the neighbourhood in the local vernacular; section 22 allows the boundary to be altered by exchange; section 23 provides that no right of any description shall be acquired in a reserved forest except by succession or under a grant or contract in writing; section 24 allows a way or watercourse to be stopped, with a substitute provided; section 25 empowers the Forest-officer to take measures to protect the forest from fire; section 26 lists the prohibited acts and their penalties; and section 27 provides for de-reservation, which only the State Government may direct.

Section 26: the prohibited acts

Section 26(1) makes it an offence for any person to do any of the following.

Make a fresh clearing prohibited by section 5.

Set fire to a reserved forest, or, in contravention of the rules, kindle any fire or leave any fire burning in such manner as to endanger the forest.

And, in a reserved forest, to kindle, keep or carry any fire except at such seasons as the Forest-officer may notify; to trespass or pasture cattle, or permit cattle to trespass; to cause damage by negligence in felling any tree or cutting or dragging any timber; to fell, girdle, lop, tap or burn any tree, or strip off the bark or leaves from it, or otherwise damage it; to quarry stone, burn lime or charcoal, or collect, subject or manufacture any forest-produce; to clear or break up any land for cultivation or any other purpose; and, in contravention of the rules, to hunt, shoot, fish, poison water or set traps or snares.

The penalty is imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or fine which may extend to five hundred rupees, or both, in addition to compensation for damage done to the forest; and the State amendments in several States have raised those figures substantially, as the corresponding amendment to section 42 raised its penalty from six months and five hundred rupees to two years and twenty-five thousand rupees.

Section 26(2) provides that when fire is caused wilfully or by gross negligence in a reserved forest, the State Government may, notwithstanding that a penalty has been inflicted, direct that in that forest or a portion of it the exercise of all rights of pasture or to forest produce shall be suspended for such period as it thinks fit.