India, March 11 -- Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Yadav has ordered the state's forest department to formulate a new policy to improve the "health" of forests after discussions with stakeholders including forest dwellers, people familiar with the matter said.

Yadav's fresh instructions come against the backdrop of his decision to not pursue a draft forest restoration draft policy that sought to allow the state government to hand over degraded forest land to private sector entities and NGOs for afforestation with the right to sell 50% of the minor forest produce due to protests by tribal groups. Degraded forests account for 38% of Madhya Pradesh's total forest cover,

An official at the chief minister's office said the decision to pu...