Can a person cut and sell trees on reserve forest land allotted to him? Tripura High Court answers

The Tripura High Court recently directed the State to either permit a petitioner to cut and sell trees growing on his land or compensate him for the same (Tarun Baidya & ors v. State of Tripura)..The order was passed by Justice Arindam Lodh in a case where the petitioner was aggrieved by the Forest Department's denial of permission to cut and sell teak trees which he had planted on his land allotted to him in 1985.The State's reason for not allowing the same was that the land in question fell under a Reserve Forest area, and under the Forest Conservation Act, no permission can be granted to cut trees in said areas. .In an order passed on earlier March 25 this year, the High Court had observed that there might have been an error on the part of the State government in allotting the land in question to the petitioners. However, there were no allegations that they misled the authorities in securing the same."...the petitioners cannot be deprived of the hard labour and patient waiting for over 30 years by refusing to grant permission to extract the trees," Justice Kureshi had held as a result..In line with instructions given in the March order, the State Forest Department conducted an enquiry, after which it found that the age of the teak trees varied and that they had been planted haphazardly as opposed to in rows. The State thus argued that petitioner could not have planted the trees in 1990 as claimed; instead these were naturally-grown ones. The Court rejected this claim after relying on the purchase vouchers attached in the writ petition which showed that the teak saplings were bought by the petitioner from the Forest Department in 1990. Thus, there was no scope of doubting the petitioner's claims, the Court found..Though there are restrictions imposed on cutting trees in Reserved Forest areas under the Forest Conservation Act, the Court held the petitioner planted and maintained the trees with the expectation that it will grow one day and he might be able to sell it."It is also equally true that the land was allotted to the petitioner by the government and he had planted the trees with the legitimate expectation that one day the trees would grow and he will sell the trees for his earning," the Court noted. Accordingly, the Court directed the State to either permit the petitioner to cut and sell those trees as he sought, or pay him market value for the same..[Read order]