The Forest Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2023, (‘the Amendment Act’) has introduced significant changes to the Forest Conservation Act of 1980. The amendments have diluted the forest conservation law regime in India by introducing multiple exemptions and definitional loopholes to circumvent conservation obligations. The prevailing state of affairs has been further worsened and decapacitated by unreliable forest data, which was one of the main criticisms of the India State of Forest, 2021, report. These amendments have been introduced at a time when international agreement on cooperative action towards climate change mitigation has gained pace, as evident in the recently concluded 28^th session of the Conference of Parties. This paper seeks to critically analyse the fundamental changes that have been introduced by the Amendment Act, through an assessment of the scale of the potential consequences. The paper also seeks to present the problems inherent in the mechanisms adopted for recording forest data of India, along with modifications that have the potential to improve its qualitative character. Furthermore, an argument for overhaul in the forest law regime of India has been made, in light of the observations made in Global Stocktake and India’s nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement. Certain indispensable attributes of an ideal forest conservation law have been elaborated upon to advance the need of a new forest conservation law.