The Nainital High Court said that it is also the job of the government to save the environment and carry out development works. If the government has such a development plan, it should present it in court within four weeks. The High Court gave the above instructions to the state government during the hearing on public interest petitions filed against forests of less than 60 hectares and not having forests of less than 60 percent density.

The case was heard before the bench of Chief Justice RS Chauhan and Justice Alok Kumar Verma. Nainital resident environmentalist Prof. Ajay Rawat, Vinod Pandey, and Renu Pal had filed PIL in the High Court stating that on 21 November 2019, the Forest and Environment Section of Uttarakhand excluded forests of less than five hectares or less than 60 percent density in Uttarakhand from the category of forests Given. Explain that the court has already imposed a ban on this order of the government.

The petitioners said that this order is an official order, which cannot be enforced as it is neither a mandate nor a cabinet pass. The petitioners allege that the government has issued this order to benefit some people. On this order of the government, the Union Forest and Environment Ministry also said that the state government should not change the definition of forests. Due to 71 percent of forests in Uttarakhand, rivers and civilizations continue to exist.

71 percent of forest area in the state
The petitioners said that 71 percent of the forest area has been declared in the state under the Forest Conservation Act-1980, in which the category of forests has also been divided. Apart from this, there are some areas which are not placed in any category. The petitioners demand that such areas should also be included in the category of forest area so that their exploitation or harvesting can be stopped.

This is the order of the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court has also stated in the 1996 Goda Varman v. Central Government order that any forest area, irrespective of its owner, would be classified as forest. Forests do not mean area or density. Worldwide, where there are 0.5 hectares of trees in the area or their density is 10 percent, they are also classified as forests.