National Working Plan
Working Plan has been the main instrument of forest planning (more exactly forest working) in
the country for scientific management of forests. It is a very useful document for evaluating
the status of forests and biodiversity resources of a forest division, assessing the impact of
past management practices and deciding about suitable management interventions for future.
Periodical up-dating and revision of working plan is essential to keep pace with the trends
emerging out of forest–people interface and to address national and international obligations.
Preparation of working plan is a highly technical exercise under taken at regular interval in
each forest division. The preparation of the working plan is based on stock and vegetation
maps which is prepared through ground surveys. Recently, the use of modern tools like
remote sensing, GIS and GPS is being utilized for preparing the forest cover maps of forest
divisions. Every working plan includes the area specific scientific prescriptions for proper
management of forests of a particular forest division, while working schemes are prepared for
smaller areas for a specific purpose or for forest areas under the control/ ownership of such
bodies as private, village, municipal, cantonment, autonomous district council (especially in
north eastern states), etc. These prescriptions enable necessary co-existence of development
with nature for simultaneous implementation of Indian Forest Act, 1927, Wildlife (Protection)
Act, 1972, Forest Conservation Act, 1980, Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act,
1996 (PESA), Biological Diversity Act, 2002, and Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest
Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006; and meeting the requirements of the
objectives of the National Forest Policy and other international conventions/agreements.
All forests are to be sustainably managed under the prescriptions of a working plan/scheme.
The National Forest Policy clearly states “No forest should be permitted to be worked without
an approved working plan by the competent authority”. It is the duty of the manager or owner
of the forest area to ensure the preparation of the working plan / scheme. The authority as
designated by the MoEF, will approve the working plan and ensure its implementation. Even
working schemes have all major elements of a working plan and these schemes also need the
sanction of the competent authority.
There has been a paradigm shift in the objectives of management of forests and forest
management has become more people centric and oriented to provide the goods and services
from forests on sustained basis, with an emphasis on ecological services and harvest of
usufructs as well. The working plan should be in consonance with general planning, which is
village based. Therefore the working plan should encompass the village as a unit and realign
the compartments accordingly. Proper guidelines for sustainable use of community forests;
extraction, processing, market and trade of minor forest produce, etc. may be provided under
separate working circles. Forest community rights related to community forest resources,
minor forest produce, grazing grounds, water bodies, etc. recognized under the provision of
the Forest Rights Act, 2006, can be exercised within the framework of sustainable use. On the
other hand, management of forests adversely affected by mining, industries, urbanisation and
other non-forest activities is also of great challenge for which special planning initiatives are
needed.
For involvement and benefit of local stakeholders, micro plans are to be prepared within the
ambit of working plan prescriptions for Joint Forest Management (JFM) areas and eco
development plans are to be prepared for eco-sensitive forest areas adjoining the notified
protected areas. The microplan of jointly managed forests is prepared by the members of the
Joint Forest Management Committee (JFMC), through Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), with
the technical assistance of forest staff of the territorial division as per MoU, for sharing the
responsibilities of implementation and equitable sharing of usufructs among the stakeholders
within the broad prescriptions of working plan. Micro plan is approved by concerned Working
Plan Officer (WPO)/Divisional Forest Officer (DFO)/Forest Development Agency (FDA) as per
prevailing conditions in the state/UT. Proper implementation of the micro plan by each JFMC
should be reviewed at least once in two years by the Forest Development Agency (FDA).