The land/area declared as forest under various sections of Indian Forest Act, 1927, registered in Government records, as well as any areas as forest, as per dictionary meaning, as per order of Hon’ble Supreme Court, in the writ petition No.202/1995 is covered under Forest Conservation Act, 1980.

Mining in forest land, collection of sand, stones and minerals from rivers, ravines and from any other parts of Forest land, laying of Electric line/ Cable/ optic fibres / Telephones line/ Gas pipeline, in the forest area; any construction activities, storage of goods for commercial purpose, construction of Dams for irrigation, construction of retaining wall to stop entering Sea-water etc. are examples of activities, considered as Non-forest use.

Any Indian citizen, Voluntary origination, Industrial unit or company, any Government/Semi-Government origination which has no alternative for use of forest land may demand forest land.

The permission of proposal for diversion of forest land is granted by Ministry of Environment and Forests and Climate Change, Government of India.

• If the proposal for diversion of forest land is up to 5 hactare, subject to specific conditions, powers to grant permission lies with Additional Principal chief conservator of forests, Regional Office, Bhopal under Ministry of Environment and Forests and Climate Change, Government of India.
• For the proposal of diversion of forest land between 5 ha. and 40 ha., subject to specific conditions, powers to grant permission lies with Regional Office Bhopal, Ministry of Environment and Forests and Climate Change, Government of India. Additional Principal chief conservator of forests, Regional Office, Bhopal MOEFCC, Government of India, issues order on the basis of recommendations of regional committee.
• For the proposal of diversion of forest land beyond 40 ha and all proposals of mining and irrigation dams, the proposal is submitted to Ministry of Environment and Forests and Climate Change, Government of India, New delhi.

Yes, General Approvals have been granted to the State Government for undertaking following public utility projects in the forest land subject to various parameters/conditions.

• Underground laying of Optical Fiber cables.
• Underground laying of Electric cables.
• Underground laying of Telephones lines.
• Laying of Drinking Waters supplies pipelines.
• Underground laying of PNG/CNG pipelines.

Conditions:

• No tree felling of tree is involved;
• The area should be outside the National Parks/Wild Life sanctuary;
• Diversion of forest land for widening should be within the Right of way ( ROW),
• The work should be carried out within maximum size of trench of two meters depth and one meter width.

For developing infrastructure facilities, 13 basic amenities have been identified under FRA, ( eg. Pertaining to health, education, drinking water, approach roads, drainage, water tanks etc), for which forest land up to 1 hectare, can be diverted at state level.

As per GoI guidelines selection of Non-Forest land for Compensatory Afforestation is to be done in the district in which diversion of forest land has been proposed.

Besides above, following priorities for selection of Non-forest area has been decided by Government of Gujarat.

• Whenever any forest land for diversion in Kutch District is proposed, land useful for conservation of Great Indian Bustard as well as Non-forest land in proximity of forest land should be given priority for Compensatory Afforestation.
  
  Whenever any forest land for diversion in the lion habitat districts Junagadh, Amreli & Bhavnagar is proposed for Non-forest use, Non-forest land useful for habitat & movement of lions in the broad Gir area should be given priority.
• Whenever Non-forest land is not available in the forest land diverted districts, Non-forest land useful for conservation of Great Indian Bustard in Abdasa Taluka in Kutch District is to be given priority in selection.
• Priority should be given for Non-forest land in Junagadh, Amreli and Bhavnagar districts which is useful for lion corridor in broad Gir area.
• Priority should be given for Non-forest land in the other districts of the circle in which forest land for diversion is proposed.
• Priority should be given for Non-forest land in proximity of existing forest land in the other districts of the State.
• Priority should be given for Non-forest land in proximity to existing National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary or useful for the corridor links to Wildlife Sanctuaries.
• state government has established land bank for providing land for compensatory afforestation for government development projects in districts of Surendranagar, Jamnagar, Kutch.

Non-forest land for Compensatory Afforestation in lieu of diversion of forest land is not required to be given in the following circumstances.

• For diversion of forest land up to 1 hectare under FRA,
• For laying of Transmission line upto 220KV.
• In cases where tree plantation is done along both the sides of public main Roads, Railway lines and Canal and is declared as Protected Forest for expansion and widening of Roads/Railway lines/Canal.
• For laying of Telephone/Optical Fiber lines,
• Diversion of forest land for the projects of departments of Government of India/Public undertakings owned by Government of India.
• For the renewal of Mining lease for which there is no need to use or break any new forest land.

For above, there is no need to give Non-forest land for Compensatory Afforestation but, the user agency has to deposit money for caring out Compensatory Afforestation to raised or degraded forest land twice in extent of the forest area being diverted/de-reserved. While for above, no Compensatory Afforestation is to be carried out.

The user agency has to deposit amount as NPV as per types of forest for diverted forest land and the amount for Compensatory Afforestation and its maintenance in Non-forest land/degraded forest area. In addition to this, the user agency has to deposit amount for any other additional Compensatory Afforestation or the actives as per conditions laid down by Government of India.

N.P.V. means "Net Present Value”. It is the monetized value of services flowing from the forest area. It is different for different forest types.

N.P.V. has been scientifically calculated on the basis of various parameters. At present the rates fixed for different forest types range from Rs.4.38 lacs and Rs.10.43 lacs per hector. New rates for NPV are under consideration by MOEFCC, GoI

Exemption from N.P.V. recovery has been allowed for the activities in the following categories:

Certain Categories of projects exempted from payment of NPV as per Hon’ble SC orders dated April 24, 2008 and May 9, 2008, as given below: