Supreme Court: Permission needed to set up zoo and safari in forests

The Supreme Court today decreed that prior permission will be necessary for setting up any zoo or safari in a forest. 

The apex court while examining the validity of amendments to the Forest (Conservation) Act made the ruling. The SC further said that all states and union territories to submit information about the total forest land, as determined under a 1996 top court decision to the Centre, latest by March 31 this year. 

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud passed the interim order while adjourning the petitions challenging the validity of the 2023 amendments to July. The petitioners had expressed their apprehensions that, if allowed to operate, the amendments will lead to in de-classification of over 1.97 lakh square kilometres of forest, protected under the definition of “forest” by a top court order of December 12, 1996 in the landmark Tamil Nadu Godavarman case.

The bench further directed the Centre to issue a circular to all states and union territories directing them to comply with the 1996 ruling and require them to submit reports on identified forest land within a span of two weeks.

The states and UTs were supposed to carry out the required process before March 31. Following that, the Centre was also directed to digitise the records and publish it on the website of the Ministry of Environment, Forests, Climate Change (MoEFCC) by April 15. 

Under the amended Forest Conservation Act, the Court exempted zoo and safari from the long list of non-forestry activities, which had cleared the way for such activities to be held inside forests. Already, a proposal for setting up tiger safari at Jim Corbet National Park in Uttarakhand has been reserved for judgment by the apex court. Another proposal is to have an animal safari in the Aravalli forest range of Haryana against which an application has been moved in the top court.