Forest - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition forest

Definition :

Forest [fr. foresta, Ital.], an incorporeal hereditament, being the right or franchise of keeping, for the purpose of venery and hunting, the wild beasts and fowls of forest, chase, park, and warren (which means all animals pursued in field sports), in a certain teritory or precinct of woody ground and pasture set apart for the purpose, with laws and officers of its own, established for protection of the game, Manw. For. Laws.

A tract of land, not necessarily wooded, reserved to king or a grantee, for hunting deer and other game, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 660.

The Charta de Foresta, confirmed in Parliament, 9 Hen. 3, disafforested many forests unlawfully made. Some of the royal forests still exist, as the New Forest in Hampshire, and Windsor; they are now administered by the Commissioners of Crown Lands and Forestry Commission; see FORESTRY ACTS. A forest is, in general, a royal possession, though it is capable of being vested in a subject. A forest is a right which the owner thereof (whether sovereign or subject) may have either in his own lands or the lands of another, differing from other incorporeal hereditaments, which are rights exercised over another's lands. The owner of a forest is also considered (notwithstanding the general rule that title cannot be made to things fer' natur') as having a qualified property in the wild animals of chase and venery there found, as long as they continue therein, 1a Steph. Com; but the owner of the land could deal with it, provided that they respected forest rights; see Blanchard v. Cawthorne, (1833) 6 Sim 155; and VERT.

The word 'forest' covers all statutorily recognised forests, whether designated as reserved, protected or otherwise for the purpose of s. 2(i) of the Forest Conservation Act, T.N. Godavarman v. Union of India, AIR 1977 SC 1228 (1230). [Forest Conservation Act, (69 of 1980), s. 1]

Forest, means a parcel of land on which trees have been grown, T.N. Godavarman Thrumulkpad v. Union of India, (1991) 2 SCC 463; Bhavani Tea and Produce Co. Ltd. v. State of Kerala, (1991) 2 SCC 463. See also State of Kerala v. Pullangode Rubber and Produce Co. Ltd., (1999) 6 SCC 99.

Must be understood according to its dictionary meaning. It would, thus, appear that the rubber plantation containing rubber trees, would be regarded as a private forest the destruction of which was sought to be prohibited by the 1949 Act, Indian Airlines Ltd. v. Samaresh Bhownick, (1999) 6 SCC 99 (T.N. Preservation of Private Forests Act, 1949 (27 of 1949)]