The High Court of Uttarakhand has ordered a stay on the State Government’s order placing less than five hectare forested area out of the deemed forest classification.

The division bench of justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and justice NS Dhanik stayed the government order dated February 19, 2020 while hearing a PIL challenging the same on Friday.

Ajay Rawat, Vinod Pande and others had filed a PIL in the high court challenging the Government’s order removing less than five hectare forested land from the deemed forest classification.  The petitioners stated that earlier, the Government had issued a similar order concerning less than 10 hectare area. However, after the earlier order was stayed by the high court, the State Government amended its earlier order to make it applicable to less than five hectare area.

The petitioners have also stated that as per the Forest Conservation Act, about 71 per cent of the state’s area is forest area in which forests have been classified into different categories though there are some areas which have not been placed under any category.

Such areas should also be classified under forest category to prevent exploitation of loss of such areas.

The petitioners also cited the 1996 Supreme Court order in the Godavarman versus the Union of India and others in which the apex court had stated that any forest area irrespective of the ownership should be classified into forest categories, adding that the definition of forests should not depend on area or density.