Indian Forest Act 1927 Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The Indian Forest Act, 1927 comprises 13 chapters and 86 sections.

The Act deals with reserved forests, village forests, protected forests, control over non-government forests, duty on timber, transit of forest produce, forest offences and their penalties, and related matters, in 13 chapters and 86 sections.

The other combinations do not match it; 66 sections, for instance, is the size of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

Answer: C

The word omitted is bamboos.

The Indian Forest (Amendment) Act, 2017 removed bamboo grown outside forests from the definition of 'tree' in Section 2(7) of the Indian Forest Act, 1927. Bamboo, botanically a grass, therefore no longer needs a felling or transit permit when grown on private land, which was meant to encourage farmers to grow and sell it.

Plant, ficus and agroforestry were not words in that definition that the amendment removed.

Before the amendment, Section 2(7) said that 'tree' includes palms, bamboos, stumps, brush-wood and canes. Only the word bamboos was deleted, so palms, stumps, brushwood and canes are still trees under the Act.

Answer: D

The classification was made by the Forest Act, 1878.

The Indian Forest Act of 1878 replaced the first, limited Act of 1865 and divided forests into three classes: reserved forests, under the strictest government control; protected forests, where some rights of local people were recorded; and village forests, assigned to village communities. This framework was carried forward into the Indian Forest Act of 1927.

The Forest Department was set up in 1864 with Dietrich Brandis as Inspector General, and the Act of 1865 was the first forest legislation; neither created the three-way classification, and 1866 is not the date of the Act that did.

Answer: D

The Indian Forest Act, 1927 consists of 13 chapters and 86 sections.

The Act consolidated earlier forest law. Its chapters deal, among other things, with reserved forests, village forests, protected forests, control over forests and lands not owned by the government, duty on timber, control of timber in transit, collection of drift and stranded timber, penalties and procedure, cattle trespass, forest officers, and miscellaneous provisions, in 86 sections in all.

The smaller counts of 6, 7 or 9 chapters do not match the Act's structure.

Answer: D

The extension was made by Act 34 of 2019.

Act 34 of 2019 is the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, which divided the State into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh from 31 October 2019. Its Fifth Schedule lists the central laws extended to both Union Territories, and the Indian Forest Act, 1927 is among them.

The other Act numbers of 2019 belong to different laws, so they did not extend the Forest Act.

Answer: B

The key's answer is by Act 5 of 2018.

The Indian Forest (Amendment) Act, 2017, which received assent in January 2018 and is numbered Act 5 of 2018, removed bamboo from the definition of 'tree' in section 2(7) of the 1927 Act, so that bamboo grown outside forests is no longer treated as a tree. This freed farmers to grow, fell and transport bamboo from their own land without a transit permit.

Acts 4, 6 and 7 of 2018 are other laws.

Answer: B

Cattle trespass is covered by Section 70 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927.

Section 70 provides that cattle trespassing in a reserved forest, or in a protected forest where grazing is prohibited, are deemed to be cattle doing damage to public plantations under the Cattle-trespass Act, 1871, and may be seized and impounded accordingly.

The other section numbers deal with different matters in the Act, so they are not the cattle trespass provision.

Answer: C

Complete protection and exclusive government ownership describe reserved forest.

Under the Indian Forest Act, 1927, a reserved forest is constituted after the settlement of rights; all activities are prohibited unless expressly permitted, so it enjoys the highest degree of protection and is the property of the government.

In protected forests activities are allowed unless prohibited, and local rights are recorded but not extinguished. Village forests are reserved forests assigned to village communities, and unclassed forests are not constituted as reserved or protected at all.