Forest Act, 1927.

This Act consists of 13 Chapters divided into 68 sections: Preliminary (I); Of Reserved Forests (II); Of Village Forests ans Social Forestry (III); Of Protected Forests (IV); Of the control over forests and lands not being the property of the Government (V); Of the duty on timber and other forest-produce (VI); Of the Control of Timber and other Forest-produce in transit (VII); Of the collection of drift and stranded timber (VIII); Penalties and procedure (IX); Cattle trespass (X); Of Forest Officers (XI); Subsidiary rules (XII); Miscellaneous (XIII).
The Provincial Government may declare any forest land which is property of the Government to be reserved forest land (sect. 3) and shall issue a notice to that effect in the Official Gazette (sect. 4). No rights shall be acquired in reserved forest land other than those acquired by sucession or by government grant or contract and no clearing of cultivation shall be carried out other than in accordance with rules made by the Government for the reserved area (sect. 5). The remaining sections of Chapter II provide for settlement of claims in the reserved area, prohibited activities, and powers of the Forest Officer in respect of such area. The Government may assign to any village community reserved forests and such forest land shall be called Village Forest (sect. 28). Other public forest or waste land may be declared protected forests and the Government may make rules in respect of all matters listed in section 32 for such areas. Additional regulation making powers of the Government are defined in section 76.