Subs. by sec. 4 of U.P. Act No. 28 of 1998 — THE UTTAR PRADESH PROTECTION OF TREES ACT, 19762

4 . Subs. by sec. 4 of U.P. Act No. 28 of 1998 [The Uttar Pradesh Protection of Trees, 1976] (iii) '' competent authority '' means an authority appointed by the State Government by notification to perform the duties and exercise the powers imposed or conferred upon a competent authority by this Act; and different competent authorities may be appointed in respect of different classes of timber, fruit and other trees, and for different purposes; (iv) '' Divisional Forest Officer '' means an officer incharge of a forest division and exercising jurisdiction over the area; (v) fell a tree, with its cognate expressions, means cutting, girdling, lopping, pollarding or damaging a tree in any other manner; (vi) '' Government garden '' means a piece of land belonging to the Central or State Government used for growing flowers, fruit or vegetables or for planting or raising trees, and includes a grove land belonging to the Central or State Government; (vii) ''Hill area '' means the districts of Almora, Pithoragarh, Garhwal, Chamoli, Tehri-Garhwal and Uttarkashi and the hill pattis of district Naini Tal and areas of Chakarata Tahsil and Mussoorie Municipal Board of Dehra Dun District but does not include any Cantonment area; (viii) '' holding '' and '' tenure -holder '' shall have the meaning assigned to them in the Uttar Pradesh Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1950; (ix) '' public premises '' shall have the meaning assigned to it in the Uttar Pradesh Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1972; (x) '' revising authority '' means an authority appointed by the State Government as revising authority under this Act; (xi) '' tree '' means any woody plant whose branches spring from and are supported upon a trunk or body and whose trunk or body is not less than five centimetres in diameter at a height of thirty centimetres from the ground level and is not less than one metre in height from the ground level, and the expressions '' timber trees '' and '' fruit trees '' mean respectively the trees of the species specified in Schedule I and Schedule II respectively: Provided that the State Government may by notification add to or modify the Schedules; (xii) ''u 'urban area '' means an area (not being a hill area), which is included within the limits of a Nagar Mahapalika, Municipal Board, Notified Area Committee, Town Area Committee, Cantonment Board or of a Development Authority; (xiii) ''w 'words and expressions '' used in this Act and defined in the Indian Forest Act, 1927, as amended in its application to Uttar Pradesh, but not defined in this Act shall have the meaning respectively assigned to them in that Act. Restriction on felling and removal of trees Procedure for permission to fell or remove trees Representation against the decision of the Competent Authority Except as provided in this Act or the rules made thereunder, no person shall– (a) fell any tree standing on any land, whether included in a holding or not; (b) cut, remove or otherwise dispose of any tree other than a tree which is completely dead and has fallen without the aid of human agency on any such land.

Section 4