Forest (Conservation) Rules, 2022:
MoEFCC has notified Forest (conservation) Rules 2022, under the Forest (conservation) Act, 1980.
New Rules:
- Constitute an advisory committee, a regional empowered committee and a screening committee at the State/UT
- It will examine all the linear projects (e.g. roads, highways, etc) involving land up to 40 hectares and the use of forest land up to 0.7 canopy density
- A fixed time for quicker review of each project
- States are given the responsibility of settling forest rights of forest dwellers (Forest Rights Act, 2006) and allowing diversion of forest land.
- If the state already has over two-thirds area under green cover or over one-third area under forest cover, then CA could be taken in other states/UTs where the cover is less than 20%
