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"Communal' land meant any land of the description mentioned in sub-clause (a) or sub-clause (b) of clause (16) of section 3 of the Madras Estates Land Act, 1908. There is nothing in evidence in the case to shown that the company's plantations area was a forest under the M.P.P.F. Act.
The Kerala Forest Act, 1961 (Act 4 of 1962) was an Act to unify and amend the law relating to the protection and management of forests in the State of Kerala and it extended to the whole of the State of Kerala. This Act repealed the Travancore-Cochin Forest Act, 1951 (Act III of 1952) and the Madras Forest Act, 1882 (XXI of 1882) and the Madras Wild Elephants Preservation Act, 1872 (Act I of 1873) as in force in the Malabar district referred to in sub-section (2) of section 5 of the State Reorganisation Act, 1956. The M.P.P.F. Act in so far as it applied to Malabar district was not repealed. The Kerala forest Act did not itself define `privat forest'.
a tract of land covered with trees and one usually of considerable extent. It is said that in old English law a certain territory of wooded ground and frutiful pastures, privileged for wild beasts and fowls of forest, chase, and warren, to rest and abide in the safe protection of the prince for his princely delight and pleasure, having a peculiar court and officers. Thus, treatment of a certain extent of land as forest was implied. The fact that an extent of land has not been so treated or declared would, therefore, be relevant in determining whether that land constituted a forest. This rule is found to have been applied by the Kerala High Court. In State of Kerala v. Anglo American Direct Tea Trading Co. Ltd., [1980] K.L.T. 215 where the respondents were owners of tea estates, the areas planted with tea had been excluded from the operation of the vesting provision of the Vesting Act. There were portions of tea estates where there were eucalyptus plantations. It was claimed by the respondents that those were areas which were required for ancillary purposes of the tea plantations, ancillary in the sense that the Eucalyptus trees grown in the Eucalyptus plantations served as fuel for processing the tea for the market. There was also a plea that the lands having been converted into Eucalyptus plantations long before the appointed day under the Vesting Act such areas could not be said to be forests as on 10.5.1971 and, therfore, there was no scope for vesting of such areas in the State. The latter plea having been accepted by the Tribunal and consequently the area where there were Eucalyptus plantations held not to have vested in the State, the Custodian challenged the findings in appeal before the High Court and the cases having related to lands outside the Malabar District to which Section 2(f) (2) of the Vesting Act was applicable, the State contended that Eucalyptus plantation was a forest. The question therefore arose whether the land which had been converted into eucalyptus plantations could be said to be forest within the meaning of the terms in Section 2(f) (2) of the Vesting Act. Subramonian Poti, J. speaking for the Division Bench consulted the dictionary meanings of forest as: "a large uncultivated tract of land covered with trees: a tract of woodland and open uncultivated ground","a large tract of land covered with trees and underbush; extensive wooded area." It was observed that the word `forest' was derived from latin foris meaning outside, the reference being to village boundary or fence, and must have included all uncultivated and uninhabited land. The World of the Knowledge Encyclopaedia Vol. 10 defines `forest' at page 2201 as "a circuit of wooded ground and pastures, known in its bounds and piviledged for the abiding of wilde beasts and fouls of forest, chase and carron to be under the King's protection for his princely delight." It was also found that the Abridged Glossary of Technical Terms published by Forest Research Institute and Colleges, Dehra Dun, page 52, the term forest was understood as an area set side for the production of timber and other forest produce, or maintained under woody vegetation for certain indirect benefits which it provided. For example, climatic or protective. It was further observed that in the context in which the term `private forest' had been used in the Act it was evident that it applied to lands other than those on which human skill, labour and resources had been spent for agricultural operations.

The definition of private forest given in Section 2(f) of the Vesting Act and Section 2(47) of the Kerala Land Reforms Act were considered by K. Jagannatha Shetty, J. in Gwalior Rayons Silk Mfg.(Wvg.) Co. Ltd. v. The Custodian of Vested Forests, Palghat & Anr. AIR 1990 SC 1747: JT 1990 (2) SC 130. The lands involved in that case were all forests as defined in the M.P.P.F. Act, 1949 and continued to be so when the Vesting Act came into force in 1971. It was observed that the definition of private forests as was applicable to the Malabar district was not general in terms but limited to the area and lands to which the M.P.P.F Act applied and exempted therefrom land described under sub- clause (A) to (D). This significant reference to M.P.P.F. Act in the definition of private forests in the Vesting Act made all the difference in the case. The M.P.P.F. Act was a special enactment by the erstwhile Madras State to preserve the private forests in the district of Malabar and erstwhile South Kanara district. The scheme appeared to be that if the land was shown to be private forest on the date on which the M.P.P.F. Act came into force, it would continue to be a forest even if there was subsequent replantation. Accordingly it was held that the lands which were forests as defined M.P.P.F. Act and continued to be so when the Vesting Act came into force would continue as forests as under that Act.

Mr. Krishnamurthy submits that the Ordinance which preceded the Vesting Act promulgated on 10.5.1971 included the private forests as defined in the M.P.P.F. Act. We have seen that the Vesting Act gave two definitions of private forest; the first was in relation to the Malabar district referred to in sub-section (2) of section 5 of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 (Central Act 37 of 1956). In that district private forest meant any land to which the M.P.P.F. Act applied immediately before the appointed day excluding the lands which were gardens or nilams as defined in Kerala Land Reforms Act, 1963 (Act 1 of 1964) and lands which were used principally for the cultivation of tea, coffee, cocoa, rubber, cardamom or cinnamon and lands used for any purpose ancillary to the cultivation of such crops or for the preparation of the same for the market. It is accordingly argued that the company's plantations did not constitute private forest either under the M.P.P.F. Act or under the Kerala Land Reforms Act and as such the entire area of the company's plantations could not have come within the purview of the Vesting Act. We find force in the submission to this extent, but in view of the objects and purposes of the Vesting Act, it can not be said that there could never be a case of such plantation land being converted to a forest by natural growth or otherwise. It must necessarily depend on facts.