Forests as a public and free good :

Abstract

The need of the hour for any country is to protect and preserve its forest for combating the climate crisis. Although India is nowhere close to achieving its target of ensuring that 33 percent of its geographical area is under forest cover as laid in its National Forest Policy, 1988, it does not appear to be making much effort towards it. The recent proposed amendments in the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 run the risk of making forests a contested market commodity among private players and big corporations like railways and highway authorities. It further runs the risk of deteriorating the status of forests, taking away the element of public good, and putting it in the category of private goods and thus making it excludable and rivalrous.