(1) The [State Government] may assign to any villagecommunity the rights of Government to or over any land which has been constituted a reserved forest, and may cancel such assignment. All forests so assigned shall be called village-forests.
(2) The [State Government] may make rules for regulating the management of village-forests, prescribing the conditions under which the community to which any such assignment is made may be provided with timber or other forest-produce or pasture, and their duties for the protection and improvement of such forest.
(3) All the provisions of this Act relating to reserved forests shall (so far as they are not inconsistent with the rules so made) apply to village-forests.
STATE AMENDMENTS
Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh (UTs)--
Section 28.--
(i) in sub-section (1), for the word "reserved forest", substitute the words "reserved forest or declared a protected forest or is a land which has been entered in settlement records as khalsa land";
(ii) in sub-section (3) after the words "reserved forests", insert the words "or protected forests, as the case may be".
[Vide the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization (Adaptation of Central Laws) Order, 2020, notification No. S.O. 1123(E) dated (18-3-2020). and Vide Union Territory of Ladakh Reorganisation (Adaptation of Central Laws) Order, 2020, notification No. S.O.3774(E), dated (23-10-2020).]
Uttar Pradesh
Amendment of section 28 of Act XVI of 1927--In section 28 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927 as amended in its application to Uttar Pradesh (Hereinafter called the principal Act):
(1) in sub-section (1)
(i) between the word "Forest" and the comma, the following shall be inserted:
"or declared a protected forest or is a forest belonging to the Government."
(ii) for the full stop occurring at the end, a comma shall be substituted and thereafter the following words and full stop shall be added:
"and, subject to the rules made under sub-section (2) all the provisions of this Act relating to reserved forests, protected forests, or forests belonging to the Government, shall, as the case may be, apply to them."
(2) sub-section (3) shall be deleted.
[Vide Uttar Pradesh Act XXI of 1960, s. 2. ]
Maharashtra--
Amendment of section 28 of Act XVI of 1927.--In section 28 of the said Act, --
(1) in sub-section (1), after the word "village community" the words and figures "village panchayat established under the Bombay Village Panchayats Act, 1933 (Bom. VI of 1933), or cooperative society registered or deemed to be registered under the Bombay Co-operative Societies act, 1925 (Bom. VII of 1925)," shall be inserted;
(2) in sub-section (2), after the word "community" the words ",panchayat or society" shall be inserted.
[Vide Bombay Act XXIV of 1955, s. 3]
Maharashtra.--
Amendment of section 28 of Act XVI of 1927.--In section 28 of the principal Act,--
(a) for the words and figures "the Bombay Village Panchayats Act, 1933 (Bom. VI of 1933)," the words and figures "the Bombay Village Panchayats Act, 1958 (Bom. III of 1959)," shall be substituted. (b) For the words and figures "the Bombay Co-operative Societies Act, 1925 (Bom. VII of 1925)," the words and figures "the Maharashtra Societies Act, 1960 (Mah. XXIV of 1961)," shall be substituted.
[Vide Maharashtra Act VII of 1985, s. 4]