A notification declaring oran and ecological areas as deemed forests was issued recently.
- According to Supreme Court directives, oran, Dev-vans, and Rundhs will be granted the status of deemed forest.
About Oran landscape:
- Orans are sacred groves in Rajasthan situated as small forest patches amidst the Thar Desert.
- Named after local deities and medieval warriors, these community forests are preserved and managed by rural communities.
- These are lands where herders have been grazing their cows, sheep, and goats for centuries.
- Usually featuring a temple and a waterbody, these community-conserved pastures are rich in biodiversity.
- The Rajasthan orans are home to the endangered great Indian bustard (GIB), chinkara, and the Indian desert fox.
- The lands are under threat now as they are sought to be used for generating “green energy”, solar in particular.
- Despite their significance, many orans are categorized as “wasteland” in revenue records, as indicated by the Wasteland Atlas prepared by the Union Ministry of Rural Development.
About Dev-vans:
- Dev-vans, also known as sacred groves, are groves in India that are dedicated to deities or ancestral spirits.
- They are traditionally conserved open forests.
- Local communities in these areas often protect the groves through taboos and sanctions.
Deemed forests:
- Deemed forests are areas that have the characteristics of forests but are neither notified nor recorded in the government or revenue records.
- The concept of “deemed forests” emerged from the T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad judgment, a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of India.
T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad judgment:
- In response to illegal timber-felling in Gudalur, Tamil Nadu, the Court took an expanded view of forest tracts worthy of protection.
- The judgment emphasized that forests had to be protected irrespective of their official classification or ownership.
- This led to the introduction of the concept of “deemed forests,” referring to tracts not officially recognized as forests in government or revenue records.
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