(1) Organized organizations, industries or communities that want to take a recognized forest shall, in addition to the things mentioned in the Act, make an application through the District Forest Office or directly to the Director in the format as per Schedule-18, along with the following details, along with the Economic Feasibility Report.
(a) Duration of Confession Forest,
(b) a general account of the likely impact on the environment,
(c) Details of forest produce and other natural resources within the forest area (d) Details of roads, canals, dams, mines etc. within the forest area (e) Other necessary details.
(2) If the forest area requested in the application as per sub-rule (1) is suitable to be provided as a recognized forest, the director shall give a deadline of thirty five days to the consumers living around the forest area to inform them whether they want to take the forest area as a community forest or not. District Forest Office should be instructed to publish notices in committees or municipalities and other public places.
(3) Within the period of notice as per sub-rule (2), if the consumers living around the said forest area want to take the said forest area as a community forest, the director shall postpone the request for recognition forest and instruct the district forest office to form a consumer group within three months.
(4) If the application is not received within the time limit as per sub-rule (2) or if the consumer group is not formed within the time limit as per sub-rule (3), if it is deemed appropriate to give it as a confession, the director shall request the following additional details from the applicant -
(a) Detailed Action Plan,
(b) Description of trees in the said area with species and measurements,
(c) If the existing trees are to be removed, the plan thereof (d) the condition of the forest at the time of expiry of the recognition forest,
(e) Other necessary technical matters.
(5) In the course of preparing a detailed action plan as per sub-rule (4), if the applicant requests data related to that forest area, the district forest officer or director shall provide the applicant with the available data.A receipt will have to be provided.
(6) If there is an application to take the same forest area as a recognized forest from more than one organized organization, industry or community, first priority will be given to communities where most of the people are below the poverty line and second priority will be given to industries based on forest products that produce forest products by planting trees.
(7) If any technical assistance is required while handing over the forest to a community, the District Forest Office shall provide it.