Chapter I Chapter I

Preliminary

1. (1) This Act may be called the Goa, Daman and Diu Preservation of Trees Act, 1984. (2)It shall extend to the whole of the Union territory of Goa, Daman and Diu. (3)It shall come into force on such date as the Government may, by notification, appoint. 1-A. 1[omitted}

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—

2[(a) “Agricultural officer” means an officer of he Director of Agriculure not below the rank of Zonal Agricultural Officer as may be authorized by the Government for the purpose of this act, by a Notification in the official Gazette;];

3[(aa)] “Appellate Authority” means an authority appointed by the Government as appellate authority under this Act; (b)“blank area” means any piece of land (not being under cultivation) measuring one- half of an hectare or more, which has five or less number of trees growing on it per every half hectares;

4[(bb) “Commercial Plantation” means the plantation of trees grown for commercial purpose on private non – forest land].

(c)“Conservator of Forests” means the Conservator of Forests, Goa, Daman and Diu;

(d)“Deputy Conservator of Forests” means a Forest Officer in-charge of a Forest Division and exercising jurisdiction over the area; (e)“Government” means the Government of Goa, Daman and Diu; (f)“forest produce” includes— (a)the following when found in, or brought from, a forest, that is to say — timber, charcoal, caoutchouc, catechu, wood-oil, resin, natural varnish, bark, lac, mahua

flowers, mahua seeds, kuth and myrabolams, and (b)the following when found in, or brought from, a forest, that is to say — (i)trees and leaves, flowers and fruits, and all other parts or produce not hereinbefore mentioned, of trees, (ii)plants not being trees (including grass, creepers, reeds and moss), and all parts or produce of such plants, (iii)wild animals and skins, tusks, horns, bones, silk, cocoons, honey and wax, and all other parts of produce of animals, and (iv)peat, surface soil, rock and minerals (including limestone, laterite, mineral oils, and oil products of mines or quarries); (g)“notification” means a notification published in the Official Gazette; (h)“rural area” means an area as specified in Schedules I and II; (i)“to fell a tree” with its cognate expression, means severing the trunk from the roots, uprooting the tree and includes bull-dozing, cutting, girdling, lopping, pollarding, applying arboricides, burning or damaging a tree in any other manner; (j)

5[ “tree” means any woody plant whose branches spring from and are supported upon the trunk or the body and whose trunk or body is not less than ten centimeters in diameter at a height of one meter from the ground level;”

6[and includes coconut palm];] (k)“Tree Officer” means a Forest Officer appointed as such by the Conservator of Forests for the purposes of this Act;

1. (1) “urban area” means an area comprised in a Municipality and includes such area as may be notified as urban area by the Government from time to time for the purposes of this Act; (m)“wood lot” means any piece of land of which trees form the main crop, the number of such trees in each hectare being not less than twenty-five; (n)“prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under the Act;
   • (o) words and expressions used in this Act and defined in the Indian Forest Act, 1927, but not defined in this Act, shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them in that Act; Central Act 16 of 1927.