The volume focuses on the complex issues involved in bringing about democratic governance of forests in India. It deals with the shift in the forestry debate from how to conserve forests to how to afforest wasteland. It probes questions relating to the stakeholders and their rights and the process for converting to non-forest land. The chapters cover a range of themes including relevance of the Joint Forest Management programme, the contribution of the Forest Rights Act, complexities of the Godavarman case vis-à-vis the boundary between forest and non-forest areas and the changes in the Wildlife Protection Act, challenges posed by shifting cultivation and scientific versus traditional knowledge. Analysing facts and forest-related developments as well as judicial pronouncements, they also view the effect of economic growth on dependence on forests.