 bill no 18 of 2019 the forest conservation (amendment) bill, 2019 bydr shrikant e shinde, mp a billfurther to amend the forest conservation act, 1980be it enacted by parliament in the seventieth year of the republic of india as follows:—(2) it shall come into force on such date as the central government may, by notificationin the official gazette, appoint"(iv) that any forest land or any portion thereof may be cleared of trees, plants, saplings or shrubs which have either grown naturally or sown or planted by sentient human beings by way of any public drive or private initiative, as the case may be, in that land or portion, for the purpose of using it for reafforestation"amendment of section 353 in section 3a of the principal act, for the words "simple imprisonment for a period which may extend to fifteen days", the words "imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months but which may extend upto five years and with five years and with fine which shall not be less than rupees five thousand but which may extend upto rupees five lakh" shall be substituted statement of objects and reasonsindia has eighteen per cent of the world population inhibiting it; in just two per cent of the world's land surface area we are the second most populous, youngest and fastest growing developing economy in the world with increased urbanization and a rapid push than ever before towards infrastructural and industrial development, it does not have (neither did it have ever) a lot of scope for forestation no doubt, that despite having a central forest (conservation) act, 1980, it has not been able to expand its green cover in pace with its increasing population although we have observed a marginal rise of 021 per cent in the area under forest between 2015 and 2017, (according to the biennial india state of forest report-sfr 2017) we are still far behind getting india to have thirty three per cent of its surface area under forest cover it has been a long standing goal since 1988, three decades for now the world is becoming a carbon-envelope with the passage of time and india is no exception to it out of top twenty most polluted cities in the world, fourteen are in india it is an alarming trend and the need of focusing on planting more trees at a war level is the only solution we have at present a humongous task lies ahead and it is not possible only with natural causes this means the union or the state government's responsibility not only ends with conservation but also plantation human and scientific intervention is a must and like any other aspect of development, man-made forestation should also be considered at the central level although there are various campaigns and drives already existent and the government at various levels have been successful in implementation of these drives also however such drives cannot be completed only with plantation the planted herbage needs to be preserved as well since it wasn't on the priority of the government like other areas of development ever before, central laws were liberal enough to a greater extent for the offenders to get away with hence, the need is to induce the idea of man-made forest in the parent act and bring accountability and increase penalty and liability of/to the offendersthe bill seeks to achieve the above objectives new delhi;shrikant e shindenovember 29, 2018 annexure extract from the forest (conservation) act, 1980[69 of 1980]      2         (iv) that any forest land or any portion thereof may be cleared of trees which have grown naturally in that land or portion, for the purpose of using it for reafforestationrestriction on the dereservation of forests or use of forest land for nonforest purpose      3a whoever contravenes or abets the contravention of any of the provisions of section 2, shall be punishable with simple imprisonment for a period which may extend to fifteen dayspenalty for contravention of the provisions of the act      ———— a billfurther to amend the forest conservation act, 1980————(dr shrikant e shinde, mp)mgipmrnd—3196ls(s3)—31-01-2019