Protection of Forests for special purposes

(1) The State Government may, by notification in the local Official Gazette, regulate or prohibit in any forest or waste-land- (a) the breaking up or clearing of land; (b) the pasturing of cattle; or (c) the firing, clearing or the vegetation; when such regulation or prohibition appears necessary in the public interest for any of the following purposes: - (i) for protection against storms, winds, rolling stones, floods and avalanches; (ii) for the preservation of the soil on the ridges and slopes and in the valleys of hilly tracts, the prevention of land slips or of the formation of ravines and torrents or the protection of land against erosion, or the deposit thereon of sand, stones or gravel; (iii) For the maintenance of water-supply in springs, rivers and tanks; (iv) for the protection of public roads, public bridges, railways, and other lines of communication; (v) for the preservation of the public health. (2) The State Government may, for any such purposes, construct at its own expense, in or upon any forest of waste land, such work as it thinks fit. (3) No notification shall be made under sub-section (1) nor shall any work be begun under sub-section (2), until after the issue of a notice to the owner of such forest or land calling on him to show cause within a reasonable period to be specified in such notice, why such notification should not be made or work constructed, as the case may be, and until his objections, if any, and evidence he may produce in support of the same, have been heard by an officer not below the rank of a Deputy Commissioner duly appointed in that behalf. (4) All objections filed under the preceding sub-section, together with the proceeding the Special Officer relating thereto, shall be referred to the State Government for orders. On receipt of such reference and after hearing such further cause as the objector may have to show, the State Government shall pass such orders as it thinks fit. In any case in which an order under sub-section (1) or action under sub-section (2) is, in the opinion of the State Government, likely to disturb substantially the owner’s rights in the land to which such order or action relates, the State Government may award to such owner such compensation as it may deem equitable. Provided that any compensation so paid shall be paid deducted from the amount payable to the owner under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, in the event of action being taken under the provisions of section 38.