The obvious answer is that it made grazing and collecting forest produce illegal, but in my range near Ludhiana, the real crime was suddenly calling our ancestral care 'theft'. My grandfather's stories were of gathering 'jangli' herbs with the forest—not from it. Now, as an officer, I still see that old Act in every suspicious glare from a villager when I check permits, a fence they think I built.
#village#farming
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