A protected forest is a specific term to denote forests with some amount of legal, and / or constitutional protection in certain countries, besides being a generic term to denote forests where the habitat and resident species are legally accorded protection and are protected from any further depletion.

In India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, the term was first introduced in the Indian Forest Act, 1927

Indian Forest Act, 1927

The Indian Forest Act, 1927 was largely based on previous Indian Forest Acts implemented under the British. The first and most famous was the Indian Forest Act of 1878...

 to denote forests with a limited amount of protection in British India.