Amendment status not verified — confirm the current text below against the official source.
(1)(a) No owner of any forest shall, without the previous sanction of the District Collector, sell, mortgage, lease or otherwise alienate the whole or any portion of the forest. Explanation.- Nothing in this sub-section shall be construed as preventing the owner from selling or otherwise dealing with the right to gather and remove forest produce other than trees and timber in the usual or customary manner, for a period not exceeding two years. [(b) Any alienation in contravention or clause (a) shall be null and void- (i) if the alienation is of any forest declared by the State Government to be a forest under clause (iii) of Section 1(2) or of any portion of such a forest, and is made on or after the date on which the declaration takes effect; (ii) if the alienation is of any forest in the districts of Malabar and South Kanara having a contiguous area exceeding 100 acres (not being a forest owned by a single person or by more than one person jointly before the commencement of the Madras Preservation of Private Forests (Second Amendment) Act, 1954,) or of any portion of such a forest, and is made on or after the 24th June, 1953. (iii) if the alienation is of any other forest, or of any portion of such a forest, and is made on or after the 16th, August, 1946]. (2) No owner of any forest, and no person claiming under him, whether by virtue of a contract, licence or any other transaction entered into before or after the commencement of the Madras Preservation of Private Forests Act, 1946 (Madras Act XVIII of 1946), or any other person shall, without the previous permission of the District Collector, cut trees or do any act likely to denude the forest or diminish its utility as a forest: Provided that nothing contained in this sub-section shall apply to the removal of dead or fallen trees or to any act done for the usual or customary domestic purposes or for making agricultural implements. (3) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1) or sub-section (2), the [State] Government may exempt any forest or class of forests or class of trees therein from all or any of the provisions of this section. Substituted by S.3 of the Madras Preservation of Private Forests (Second Amendment) Act, 1954 (Madras Act XVIII of 1954. Substituted for the word "Provincial" by the Adaptation Order of 1950.