Wildlife and Nature Conservation - Centre for Ecological Sciences

(d) Ownership and transfer of land and its resources shall apply to the State ofNagaland unless the Legislative Assembly of Nagaland by a resolution so decides.Thus, the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 passed by Parliament would not perhaps applyto the State of Nagaland. It is, however, noted that by way of an executive order, the StateGovernment has extended the application of the Forest (Conservation) Act 1980 to theforests declared as “Reserved” vide Notification No. FOR- 58/82 dated 3.7.86. Thiscovers only 3% of the forest area of the State.With regard to the State of Assam, generally all Acts of Parliament apply, except asmodified for the Sixth Schedule Areas of Karbi Anglong and North Cachar Hills. Here, itis specified that the above said District Councils (Sixth Schedule Areas) shall haveamong others, the powers to make laws with respect to:i) The allotment, occupation or use or the selling of land other than any land which isa reserved forest, for the purposes of agriculture or grazing or for residential orother non-agricultural purposes or for any other purposes likely to promote theinterests of the inhabitants of any village or town.ii) The management of any forest not being a reserve forest.iii) The regulation of the practice of jhum or other forms of shifting cultivation andiv) Alienation of land“Reserved forest” means any area which is a reserved forest under the Assam ForestRegulation 1891 or under any other law for the time being in force in the area.It is noted that the State Government of Assam has entrusted the management of even thereserved forests to the above said District Councils. With respect to the State of Manipur,a similar provision exists in the Hill Areas of the State. This is governed by the Manipur(Hill Area) District Council Act, 1971 which empowers the Hill Area District Councils tocontrol and administer the following matters:i) The allotment, occupation or use, or the setting apart of land, other than landacquired for any public purpose or land which is a reserved forest, for the purposeof agriculture or grazing or for residential or other non-agricultural purposes or forany other purposes likely to promote the interests of the inhabitants of any villageor town situated within the autonomous district for which that council isconstituted,(ii) the management of any forest not being a reserved forest, and(iii) the regulation of the practice of jhum or other form of shifting cultivation.However, in the absence of any specific provision in the Constitution, it cannot be saidthat the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 does not apply to the State of Manipur, althoughin practice the Hill Areas unclassified forests have remained outside the Central Act. Inany event, Article 371 C of the Constitution clearly states that the executive power of theUnion shall tend to the giving of directions to the State as to the administration of the HillAreas.In so far as the State of Mizoram is concerned, it is governed by Article 371 G of theConstitution for the State and Section 12 B of the Sixth Schedule in so far as the notifiedtribal areas are concerned. According to Article 371 G, notwithstanding anything in theConstitution, no Act of Parliament in respect of,152