Chapter I PRELIMINARY

1. (1) This Act may be called the Sikkim Forests, Water Courses and Road Reserve (Preservation and Protection) Act, 1988.

1. (2) It extends to the whole of Sikkim.
2. (3) It shall come into force at once.

2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-

1. (a) "cattle" includes asses, buffaloes, cows, colts, ewes, fillies, geldings, goats, horses, kids, lambs, mules, ponies, pigs, rams, sheep, yak and zoe, elephant and such other kinds of animals as the Government, by notification, specify;
2. (b) "forest" means an extensive tract of land covered with trees and undergrowth, sometime intermingled with pastures, alpine scrubs;
3. (c) "forest land" means the land shown as forest land in the records of right including areas under perpetual snow, alpine, scrubs or alpine pasture or the land as declared as forest land by the Government, by notification;
4. (d) "forest officers" includes the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Chief Conservator of Forests, Additional Chief Conservator of Forests, Conservator of Forests, Deputy Conservator of Forests, Assistant Conservator of Forests, Range Officers, Deputy Range Officers, Foresters, Head Forest Guard, Forest Guard or any other officers appointed by the Government to perform any function of a forest officer under this Act;
5. (e) "forest offence" means an offence punishable under this Act or under any rule made thereunder;
6. (f) "forest produce" includes - (i)(a) the following whether found in, or brought from, a forest or not, that is to say:- bark, charcoal, firewood, myrabolance, natural varnish, resin, shellac, timber, wood, and
7. (b) the following when found in, or brought from, a forest, that is to say :- trees and leaves, flowers and fruits and all other parts or produce of trees not hereinbefore mentioned;
   • (ii) wild animals and skins, tusks, horns, bones, silk, cocoons, hony and wax, and all other parts or produce of animals,
   • (iii) plants not being trees including agave, creeper, dioscores, daphne, edgeworthia, ferns, grass, licopodium, lichens, mushroom, moss and reeds, bamboos, nettle, polygonum, thysanolaena, and all categories of medicinal herbs and shrubs, any agricultural crops, bulbs, rhizomes, tubers, and all parts or produce of such plants,
   • (iv) peat, dolomite, graphite, rock, surface soil, sand stones, slates, and other minerals including laterite, mineral oils and all other products of mines and quarries, and
   • (v) such other produce as the Government may, by notification, declare to be forest produce.
8. (g) "Government" means the State Government of Sikkim;
9. (h) "gorucharan forest" means any forest land settled and set aside by the State Government for the purpose of grazing of cattle of the adjoining villages;
   • (i) "khasmal forest" means any forest land settled and set aside by the Government for meeting the bonafide domestic need of timber, firewood and fodder of the resident of the adjoining villages;
10. (j) "land" includes channel, creaks and other water channel, reservoir, rivers, lakes and streams, whether artificial or natural and also includes boulders and rocks;
11. (k) "notification" means a notification published in the Official Gazette;
12. (l) "reserved forest" means any forest land settled and notified by the Government as reserved forest;
13. (m) "river" includes any stream, channel, jhora, creak or other channel, natural or artificial;
14. (n) "timber" includes trees when they have fallen or have been felled and all wood cut up or sawn or fashioned or hallowed out for any purpose whatsoever;
15. (o) "trees" includes bamboos, brushwood, cane, banana, kernels, stumps, trees and palms;
16. (p) "waste land" means an uncultivated land which is not the property of any individual person;
17. (q) "weapon" includes ammunition, bows, arrows, explosive, firearms, hooks, bills, khukuris, axe, saw, knives, nets, poison, snares, traps and any instrument or apparatus capable of destroying, damaging and injuring forest produce.