Forest Rights Act



Recent News

  • In a writ petition filed before the SC by some ‘conservation’ groups and a few relics of the forest bureaucracy challenged the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 or the Forest Rights Act as being contrary to the Constitution and therefore outside the powers of Parliament to legislate.
  • This Act, subject to its criticisms and flaws, was a largely positive move by the government to redress historical wrongs and prevent the alienation of forest dwellers from their lands a factor that was indeed contributing to the destruction of forests in many parts of the country.
  • On February 13, the Supreme Court ordered the eviction of lakhs belonging to the Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (OTFDs) categories across 16 States, whose claim as forest-dwellers has been rejected under the Forest Rights Act.
  • It ordered the Forest Survey of India (FSI) to make a satellite survey and place on record the “encroachment positions.”
  • But later the Supreme Court put on hold its recent order asking states to evict forest-dwellers whose claims on land had been rejected under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006.
  • The court’s decision to review its earlier verdict which would have displaced more than a million people from their homes in the forests, is a welcome move.
  • The SC acknowledged the need to ask whether due processes were followed by gram sabhas and state authorities before the claims for forest rights were rejected.


 Background of the Act
In the colonial era, the British diverted abundant forest wealth of the nation to meet their economic needs.
While procedure for settlement of rights was provided under statutes such as the Indian Forest Act, 1927, these were hardly followed.
As a result, tribal and forest-dwelling communities, who had been living within the forests in harmony with the environment and the ecosystem, continued to live inside the forests in tenurial insecurity, a situation which continued even after independence as they were marginalised.
The symbiotic relationship between forests and forest-dwelling communities found recognition in the National Forest Policy, 1988. The policy called for the need to associate tribal people in the protection, regeneration and development of forests.
The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, was enacted to protect the marginalised socio-economic class of citizens and balance the right to environment with their right to life and livelihood.

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Location: Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India

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