As a New Year gift, the UPA Government notified the long-stalled Forest Rights Act, which gives tribals legal rights over forest land. The notification of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, (popularly Forest Rights Act) is expected to benefit 10 million forest dwellers across 17 states.
The Act, passed by Parliament in December 2006, has a tumultuous history with forest conservationists and tribal rights activists running high-pitched campaigns against each other. […]
Tribals have been residing in forest land for generations, cultivating and collecting forest produce like firewood and fruits. They, however, do not have a legal document showing that they are owners of the land. Ever since the Forest Conservation Act, these tribals have been seen as encroachers or illegal occupants. After the enactment of the Act, these tribals will now have the legal right to own, collect, use and dispose of minor forest produce. This is expected to undo the historical injustice done to forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes who were living at the whims of the forest department, so far. […]
The major grouse is dilution of the Act by declaring large tracts of forest land as critical habitat. Another is related to making the Gram Sabha unmanageable. According to the Act, the Gram Sabha plays a key role in determining who has rights to which forest resources. However, Rule 3(1) now defines the Gram Sabha as the Gram Sabha of the panchayat, which would include numerous actual villages. This will make democratic functioning impossible (as the number will simply be too large); further, in many areas forest dwellers will be the minority. Read more >>
Source: Forest Rights Act, The Indian Express, 2 January 2008
Address : http://www.indianexpress.com/news/forest-rights-act/256944/0
Date Visited: 27 January 2022
Jawaharlal Nehru on five principles for the policy to be pursued vis-a-vis the tribals >>
Photo © Indian Express
The current predicament of Adivasis
The current predicament of a vast majority of Adivasis is one of sharp erosion in their livelihoods and their life-worlds. Despite assurances of autonomy (the Fifth and Sixth Schedules, the Panchsheel, PESA 1996, Forests Rights Act 2006) and attempts of focused addressal of Adivasi and Tribal issues (including the establishment of an umbrella outfit, the National Council for Tribal Welfare), there are counter structures and programmes that defy the enabling of genuinely decentralised autonomy and the guarantee of democratic participation. For instance, the recently approved ‘Integrated Action Plan’ in Tribal areas overrides the representation of Adivasis in local issues in decision-making processes and arrogates powers of governance to bureaucrats and specialists.
In addition to such contradictory and conflicting measures, the forces of fast-expanding capital, along with the top-down deployment of development models have resulted in large scale displacement in Adivasi regions. Global capital’s access to mineral wealth has also intensified violence of various forms and degrees.
Source: Ch. 2, “Context and Conditions of Adivasi Life Worlds” (p. 5) in THE EDUCATION QUESTION’ FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ADIVASIS: CONDITIONS, POLICIES AND STRUCTURES by National Institute of Advanced Studies (Bangalore), March 2012 & UNICEF | Backup (PDF, 4 MB)
Implementation of Forest Rights Act: Towards an informed collective action by stakeholders
By: Azim Premji University Team, Initiative for Effective Implementation of FRA
1. Introduction and Background
This essay summarizes the provisions of the so-called, Forest Rights Act (FRA) in India and the challenges in its implementation. […]
2. Why Forest Rights Act?
Though the tribal communities in India had been using forests for generations, such use was not based on any legal right. Also, they frequently shifted residence and activities for their subsistence from one place to another within the forest, which too has complicated the issue of their rights. (On the other hand, many farmers in India got their claim over a piece of land accepted legally by demonstrating their occupation for a long time). The absence of formal rights, as well as mobility of the tribal people, enabled the state to exercise control over forests without recognizing forest use by the tribal communities. It is a well-known fact that the colonial rulers of India have brought forests under the control of the government and this has continued after the independence of the country. Moreover, the control of state became stronger over time and as the conservation of forest became an international and national agenda in the 1980s. It has led to the increasing denial or intermediation of the use of forests by the tribal population. The government imposed forest conservation laws without considering the livelihood needs of the people who have depended on it for generations. Moreover, there were minimal efforts to enlist the support of these communities in the management of forests. In that sense, the Indian situation is somewhat different from many other countries, where the efforts to conserve forests have, by and large, gone hand in hand with the efforts to meet the livelihood needs of forest-dependent people.
3. What is Forest Rights Act?
Though it is commonly called, the `Forest Rights Act’, the actual name is the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. Through this act, there are three major rights on forests to be transferred to the forest-dwelling tribal people. These include:
a. Title for Forest Land Under Occupation […]
b. Title to Community Forest Rights (CFR): This is the `right of ownership, access to collect, use, and dispose of minor forest produce which has been traditionally collected within or outside village boundaries’. The Act `defines the term “minor forest produce” to include “all non-timber produce of plant origin, including bamboo, brush wood, stumps, cane, tussar, cocoons, honey, wax, lac, tendu or kendu leaves, medicinal plants and herbs, roots, tubers, and the like”’. […]
c. Title to Community Forest Resources […]
The rights vested under the act are inheritable but not sale-able. […]
Source: “Implementation of Forest Rights Act: Towards an informed collective action by stakeholders” by Azim Premji University Team, Initiative for Effective Implementation of FRA
URL: https://practiceconnect.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/the-implementation-of-forest-rights-act-towards-an-informed-collective-action-by-stakeholders/
Date Visited: 27 January 2022
[Bold typeface added above for emphasis]
The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Forest Rights Act) gives members of tribal communities the right “to collect, use, and dispose of minor forest produce including bamboo, brush wood, stumps, cane, tussar, cocoons, honey, wax, lac, tendu or kendu leaves, medicinal plants and herbs, roots, tubers.” – Azim Premji University Team
Learn from M S Swaminathan – a world renowned scientist – how biological diversity contributes to public health, people’s livelihood and environmental security in addition to food security: his call on fellow citizens to use and share resources in a more sustainable and equitable manner; outlining the long journey from the 1992 Earth Summit to a commitment to foster inherited knowledge through India’s Biodiversity Act and Genome Saviour Award; an award intended to reward those who are “primary conservers” – guardians of biological diversity!
More about the work of his foundation which “aims to accelerate use of modern science and technology for agricultural and rural development to improve lives and livelihoods of communities.” – www.mssrf.org | Regarding the issues of food security raised above, and the nutritional value of indigenous grains, seeds and millets, read an in-depth report that concludes that “the tribal food basket has always been diverse and nutritious” >>
Up-to-date reports by Indian experts and journalists
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What does it mean to be Indigenous?
Indigenous Peoples can be identified according to certain characteristics:
They are politically and socially marginalized.
Most importantly, they self-identify as Indigenous Peoples.
They share an ancestral link with those who inhabited a country or region before they were colonized or before other peoples became dominant.
They have a strong link to particular territories and the surrounding natural resources.
They have distinct social, economic or political systems, which they are resolved to maintain and reproduce.
They have a distinct language, culture and beliefs.
There are more than 5,000 different Indigenous Peoples around the world comprising 476 million people – around 6.2% of the global population. They are spread across more than 90 countries in every region and speak more than 4,000 languages. | Learn more (Amnesty International) >>
Source: “INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS” by Amnesty International
URL: https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/indigenous-peoples/
Date Visited: 10 May 2025
Learn more on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, their Languages & linguistic heritage & Tribal culture worldwide >>
“Even though they are responsible for protecting the largest part of the global forest heritage […] a third of indigenous and community lands in 64 countries are under threat due to the lack of land tenure rights.” – Pressenza Rio de Janerio in “Indigenous people are heading to CoP26: ‘There is no solution to the climate crisis, without us‘” (Down To Earth) | Forest dwellers in early India – myths and ecology in historical perspective by Romila Thapar >>
See also
Adverse inclusion | Casteism | Rural poverty
Anganwadi | Community facilities | Ekalavya
Demographic Status of Scheduled Tribe Population of India (Census figures 2011)
Fact checking | Figures, census and other statistics
Human Rights Commission (posts) | www.nhrc.nic.in (Government of India)
Search tips | Names of tribal communities, regions and states of India
“The world sells humans. What kind of world is this?” – Hindi Movie “Kamla” revisited
“What is the Forest Rights Act about?” – Campaign for Survival and Dignity
“Who are Scheduled Tribes?” – Government of India (National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, NCST)