Over 100 civil society organisations from 15 states highlight the loopholes in the Centre’s draft National Forest Policy 2018 and demand withdrawl of this draft National Forest Policy, 2018

The overall objective and goal of the present policy is to safeguard the ecological and livelihood security of people, of the present and future generations, based on sustainable management of the forests for the flow of ecosystem services In order. to achieve the national goal for eco-security, the country should have a minimum of one-third of the total land area under forest and tree cover. In the hills and mountainous regions, the aim will be to maintain two-third of the area under forest & tree cover in order to prevent soil erosion and land degradation and also to ensure the stability of the fragile eco-systems.