The Delhi government has identified and is in the process of digitally demarcating over 2,000 hectares of land and over 450km of roads and drains as deemed forests, the state forest department has said in an affidavit submitted to the Delhi high court last month.
A deemed forest is not a notified or a reserve forest, but is considered a forest. The concept came into existence following a Supreme Court judgement in 1996 (TN Godavarman vs Union of India). Different states have different definitions for deemed forest, with Delhi defining it as any area over 2.5 acres and having over 100 trees per acre. Similarly, 1km stretches of roads and drains with the same density are also considered deemed forests. Forest officials, in an affidavit to the high court submitted on December 19, said they are using geographic information systems (GIS) to digitally define boundaries of deemed forests using both 1997 data — when such forests were first identified in Delhi — and using the latest India State of Forest Report (ISFR), 2021.
