Pasture, Forest Produce and the Record of Rights

In one line

A proved right of pasture or of forest produce can be kept, moved, bought out or replaced with land, and when the officer has finished the State publishes a notification and the forest is reserved for ever.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 13 requires the Forest Settlement Officer to record an admitted claim to a right of pasture or to forest produce; section 15 empowers him to continue such a right, wholly or in part, subject to conditions and in a stated portion of the forest; section 16 empowers him instead to commute it, by paying money or by granting land; section 17 provides an appeal to a Revenue Officer of a stated rank; section 18 provides for the appellate procedure; and section 20, the final notification, declares the forest reserved from a stated date, from which the land becomes a reserved forest.

The provisions

Section 13, record of rights. The Forest Settlement Officer shall record an admitted claim to a right of pasture or to forest produce, specifying the number and description of the cattle which the claimant is entitled to graze, the season, the tract within which and the times at which the right may be exercised, the number and description of the trees or the quantity of produce the claimant is entitled to take, and the other particulars the section requires.

Section 14 requires the record to be made in a book kept for the purpose.

Section 15, continuance of the right. The Forest Settlement Officer may, with the previous sanction of the State Government or of an officer duly authorised, continue the right admitted under section 12, subject to such rules as may be made, and may set out some other forest tract of sufficient extent and in a locality reasonably convenient for the persons claiming, and record an order conferring on them a right of pasture or to forest produce to the extent so admitted; and thereafter the right so recorded may be exercised only in that tract.

Section 16, commutation. In case the Forest Settlement Officer finds it impossible, having due regard to the maintenance of the reserved forest, to make such a settlement as is provided in section 15, he shall, subject to sanction, commute the right by the payment of money or by the grant of land, or in such other manner as he thinks fit.

Section 17, appeal. Any person who has made a claim under the Act, or any Forest-officer or other person generally or specially empowered by the State Government, may, within three months of an order passed under section 11, 12, 15 or 16, appeal to the officer the State Government appoints, who must be of a rank not lower than that of a Collector.