Section 6 in The Forest (Conservation) Rules, 2003
6. [ Submission of proposal seeking approval of the Central Government under section 2 of the Act. [Substituted by Notification No. G.S.R. 185 (E), dated 14.3.2014 (w.e.f. 10.1.2003).]
(1)Every User Agency that wants to use any forest land for non-forest purposes, shall make its proposal in the relevant Form appended to these rules, namely; Form 'A' for proposal seeking first time approval under the Act, Form 'B' for proposal seeking renewal of leases, where approval of the Central Government under the Act had already been obtained, and Form 'C' for prospecting of minerals, to the Nodal Officer of the concerned State Government or the Union territory Administration, as the case may be, along with requisite information and documents, complete in all respect.(2)The User Agency shall endorse a copy of the proposal, along with a copy of the receipt obtained from the office of the Nodal Officer to the concerned Divisional Forest Officer, District Collector and Regional Office as well as the Monitoring Cell of the Forest Conservation Division of the Ministry of Environment and Forests.(3)(a)The Nodal Officer of the State Government or the Union territory Administration, as the case may be, after having received the proposal under sub-rule (1) and on being satisfied that the proposal is complete in all respects and requires prior approval under section 2 of the Act, shall send the proposal to the concerned Divisional Forest Officer and the District Collector within a period of ten days of the receipt of the proposal.(b)If the Nodal Officer of the State Government or the Union territory Administration, as the case may be, finds that the proposal is incomplete, he shall return it within a period of ten days to the User Agency and this time period and the time taken by the User Agency to re-submit the proposal shall not be counted for any future reference.(c)The Divisional Forest Officer shall examine the factual details and feasibility of the proposal, certify the maps, carry out site-inspection and enumeration of the trees and forward his findings in the Format specified in this regard to the Conservator of Forests.(d)The Divisional Forest Officer shall process and forward the application along with his findings on the proposal involving forest land upto forty hectares, above forty hectares and up to one hundred hectares and above one hundred hectares to the Conservator of Forests within a period of thirty days, forty five days and sixty days respectively.(e)[ the District Collector shall-(i)complete the process of recognition and vesting of forest rights in accordance with the provisions of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (2 of 2007) for the entire forest land indicated in the proposal;(ii)obtain consent of each Gram Sabha having jurisdiction over the whole or a part of the forest land indicated in the proposal for the diversion of such forest land and compensatory and ameliorative measures, if any, having understood the purposes and details of diversion, wherever required; and(iii)forward his findings in this regard to the Conservator of Forests;(f)the entire process referred to in clause (e) shall be completed by the District Collector within the time period stipulated in these rules for grant of in-principle approval under the Act to the proposal;(g)the Conservator of Forests shall examine the factual details and feasibility of the proposal, carry out site inspection in case the area of forest land proposed to be diverted is more than forty hectares, and forward the proposal along with his recommendations to the Nodal Officer;](h)The time taken by the Conservator of Forests to process and forward to the Nodal Officer the proposal involving forest land up to forty hectares and above forty hectares shall not be more than ten days and thirty days respectively.(i)The Nodal Officer, through the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, shall forward the proposal to the State Government or the Union territory Administration, as the case may be, along with his recommendations.(j)The Nodal Officer shall process and forward the proposal along with his findings on the proposal involving forest land, up to five hectares, above five hectares and up to forty hectares, above forty hectares up to one hundred hectares and above one hundred hectares, to the State Government or the Union territory Administration, as the case may be, within a period of ten days, twenty days, twenty five days and thirty days respectively.(k)In case the State Government or the Union territory Administration, as the case may be, decides not to, de-reserve or divert for non-forest purpose or assign on lease the forest land indicated in the proposal, as the case may be, the same shall be intimated to the User Agency within thirty days of the receipt of proposal from the Nodal Officer:Provided, all proposals involving diversion of forest land for projects of the Central Government or Central Government Undertakings where the State Government or the Union territory Administration, as the case may be, does not agree in-principle to de-reserve or divert for non-forest purpose or assign on lease the forest land indicated in the proposal, as the case may be, shall be forwarded to the Central Government along with comments of the State Government or the Union territory Administration, as the case may be.(l)The State Government or the Union territory Administration, as the case may be, shall forward along with its recommendations all those proposals where State Government or the Union territory Administration, as the case may be, agrees in-principle to de-reserve or divert for non-forest purpose or assign on lease the forest land indicated in the proposal, as the case may be, and all proposals involving diversion of forest land for projects of the Central Government or Central Government Undertakings, to the Central Government within thirty days:Provided that the all proposals involving felling of trees on forest land or a portion thereof for the purpose of using it for reafforestation shall be sent in the form of Working Plan or Working Scheme or Management Plan:Provided further that the concerned State Government or the Union territory Administration, as the case may be, shall simultaneously send the intimation to the User Agency about forwarding of the proposal, along with its recommendations, to the Regional Office or the Ministry of Environment and Forests, as the case may be:Provided also that total time taken exclusively for transit of a proposal between various authorities in the State Government or the Union territory Administration, as the case may be, shall not be more than twenty days, over and above the time period specified for processing of proposal by each authority.(m)Whenever the time taken by the State Government or the Union territory Administration, as the case may be, for processing the proposal exceeds the time limits stipulated in clauses (a) to (l) above, the proposal shall be considered by the Central Government only if an explanation for the delay is furnished to the satisfaction of the Central Government, together with action taken against any individual held to be responsible for the delay.(4)[(a) The proposal referred to in clause (l) of sub-rule (3), involving forest land up to forty hectares and all proposals related to linear projects irrespective of the area of forest land involved, shall be forwarded by the concerned State Government or the Union Territory Administration, as the case may be, along with its recommendations, to the concerned Regional Office.(b)The proposal referred to in clause (l) of sub-rule (3), involving forest land of more than forty hectares, other than proposals related to linear projects shall be forwarded by the concerned State Government or the Union Territory Administration, as the case may be, along with its recommendations, to the Secretary, Government of India, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.](c)The proposals referred to in clause (l) of sub-rule (3), involving clearing of trees in forest land or portion thereof for the purpose of using it for re-afforestation shall be sent to the concerned Regional Office.(5)[ (a) notwithstanding anything contained in these rules, the proposal to obtain approval under the Act to undertake prospecting of minerals without felling of trees and construction of new road or path in mining blocks falling outside the protected areas, eco-sensitive zone of protected areas, identified tiger corridors and having no forest cover of more than ten percent crown density as per the latest India State of Forest Report published by the Forest Survey of India, shall be submitted by the User Agency in a letter form along with a geo-referenced map indicating boundary of the prospecting block, location of each bore-hole site and roads or paths to be used for prospecting; and a certificate to the effect that the proposal meets the afore-mentioned requirements to the Nodal Officer;(b)the Nodal Officer, after having received the proposal under clause (a) and on being satisfied that the geo-referenced map and the certificate are in order, shall send the proposal to the Divisional Forest Officer within a period of ten days of the receipt of the proposal;(c)if the Nodal Officer, finds that the geo-referenced map or the certificate are not in order, he shall return the proposal within a period of ten days to the User Agency and the said period taken by the Nodal Officer and the time taken by the User Agency to re-submit the geo-referenced map and the certificate shall not be counted for any future reference;(d)the Divisional Forest Officer shall authenticate the geo-referenced map and certificate submitted by the User Agency and forward the same directly to the State Government or Union territory Administration, as the case may be, or an officer not below the rank of the Nodal Officer, authorized by the State Government or Union territory Administration, as the case may be, to finally dispose of such proposals, within thirty days of its receipt;(e)the State Government or the Union territory Administration, as the case may be, or the officer not below the rank of the Nodal Officer, duly authorized by the State Government or the Union territory Administration, as the case may be, to finally dispose of such proposals, after examination of the geo-referenced map and certificate and after such further enquiry as it may consider necessary, grant permission for prospecting of minerals subject to fulfillment of stipulated conditions, or reject the same within twenty-five days of receipt of the proposal from the Divisional Forest Officer and communicate the same to the concerned Divisional Forest Officer and the User Agency, within next five days;(6)(a)notwithstanding anything contained in these rules, proposal to obtain approval under the Act to undertake prospecting of minerals without felling of trees and construction of new road or path in mining blocks falling outside the protected areas, eco-sensitive zone of protected areas, identified tiger corridors and having no forest cover of more than forty percent crown density as per the latest India State of Forest Report published by the Forest Survey of India, shall also be submitted in a letter form along with a geo-referenced map indicating boundary of the prospecting block, location of each borehole site and roads or paths to be used for prospecting; and a certificate to the effect that the proposal meets the afore-mentioned requirements to the Nodal Officer;(b)the Nodal Officer, after having received the proposal under clause (a) and on being satisfied that the geo-referenced map and the certificate are in order, shall send the proposal to the Divisional Forest Officer within a period of ten days of the receipt of the proposal;(c)if the Nodal Officer, finds that the geo-referenced map or the certificate are not in order, he shall return the proposal to the User Agency within a period of ten days and the said period taken by the Nodal Officer and the time taken by the User Agency to re-submit the proposal shall not be counted for any future reference;(d)the Divisional Forest Officer shall authenticate the geo-referenced map and certificate submitted by the User Agency and forward the same directly to the Nodal officer, within a period of thirty days of receipt of the geo-referenced map and the certificate;(e)the proposal received by the Nodal Officer under clause (d) shall be further processed in the manner and within the period as provided in clause (i) to clause (m) of sub-rule (3) and sub-rule (4) of rule 6 and rule 7 of these rules.]
