(1) Any religious body, group or community established in accordance with the prevailing law should apply to the Divisional Forest Officer along with an action plan if they want to take a religious place from ancient times and the national forest around such area as a religious forest.
(2) If an application is received as per sub-rule (1), the Divisional Forest Officer shall, after conducting necessary checks on the action plan submitted with the application, find that it is appropriate to transfer the religious forest, approve such action plan and give a certificate in the format as per Schedule-45: Such forest area may be transferred as a religious forest.
(3) The Divisional Forest Officer shall prepare a list of the forests transferred as religious forests in accordance with sub-rule (2) and send one copy to the provincial ministries, departments and directorates and such details shall be entered in the database prepared by the department.
(4) In the religious forest area, the religious body, group or community shall only perform the work according to the approved action plan.
(5) The religious body, group or community may reconstruct and repair existing religious structures and construct toilets and water tanks in order to carry out functions and customs of religious and cultural importance that have been carried on from time immemorial and tradition in the religious forest. During the construction of such structures, the forest produce of the religious forest can be used with the approval of the Divisional Forest Officer.
(6) Physical infrastructure other than the structures as per sub-rule (5) shall not be constructed within the religious forest as prescribed by the approved action plan.
(7) During the construction and operation of the development project in accordance with Section 42 of the Act on Religious Forests, the forest produce and the forest produce obtained from the fallen trees due to storms, floods and landslides shall be collected by the Divisional Forest Officer and deposited in a safe place.
(8) If there is a request to remove the dangerous tree within the religious forest, the Divisional Forest Officer may remove it.
(9) The Divisional Forest Officer shall: auction the forest produce as per sub-rule (7) and (8) as per rule 25.