Amendment status not verified — confirm the current text below against the official source.
The Local Government may from time to time, by notification in the local official Gazette, declare the provisions of this chapter applicable to any forest-land or waste-land which is not included in a reserved forest, but which is the property of Government, or over which the Government has proprietary rights, or to the whole or any part of the forest-produce of which the Government is entitled. The forest-land and waste-lands comprised in any such notification shall be called a "Protected Forest." No such notification shall be made unless the nature and extent of the rights of Government and of private persons in or over the forestland or wasteland comprised therein have been enquired into and recorded at a survey or settlement, or in such other manner as the Local Government thinks sufficient. Every such record shall be presumed to be correct until the contrary is proved: Provided that, if in the case of any forest-land or waste-land, the Local Government thinks that such enquiry and record are necessary, but that they will occupy such length of time as that the rights of Government will in the meantime be endangered, the Local Government may (pending such enquiry and record) declare such land to be a protected forest, but so as not to abridge or affect any existing rights of individuals or communities.