Forest Rights Act (FRA)

“[I]t is unimaginable to think of tribes as landless, as land and forest have been traditionally their life support system.” – Virginius Xaxa, excerpt from Being Adivasi (Gurugram: Penguin Books India, 2021)
https://scroll.in/article/1014436/being-adivasi-autonomous-existence-or-integration-nehru-had-proposed-a-third-way
https://worldcat.org/en/title/1290015863
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=27829

Legal rights over forest land: Tribals no longer “encroachers” or “illegal occupants” – Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006

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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 … Read more

Tip | Understanding India’s legislation known as Forest Rights Act and its relevance for tribal communities

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The FRA was enacted in 2006 with the aim of protecting the claims of tribal communities over tracts of land or forests they have inhabited and cultivated for generations. It has the potential to democratise forest governance by recognising community forest resource rights over an estimated 85.6 million acres, thereby empowering over 200 million forest … Read more

“Tribal communities have proven that they are the best guardians of the forest and die-hard conservationists”: Illegal mining destroys the life and culture of the conservators of forests

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Source: “Odisha’s Tribal Communities Are Reeling Under a Land Grab Project Masquerading as ‘Afforestation’” by Abhijit Mohanty (The Wire, 23 July 2020)URL: https://thewire.in/rights/odisha-kandhamal-forest-rights-tribalsDate Visited: 26 February 2022 Illegal mining in forests is destroying the life and culture of schedule tribes, opined Dr H Sudarshan, director of Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra. He was speaking at national … Read more

ePaper | “Criminality by birth” is an abhorrent colonial doctrine”: Harness the potential of Denotified Tribes, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes for national development

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What is the “Criminal Tribes Act” all about?And what can be done to help the countless victims of stigmatization and deprivation? To learn more, download the full TAG report:“RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE TECHNICAL ADVISORY GROUP 2006” (Backup PDF, 1 MB, 361 pages) including the entire text of the final recommendations providing a road-map for the long … Read more

“Native science” in food systems: A wide range of tribal processes of perceiving, thinking, acting, and coming to know

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Source: Food sovereignty as decolonization: some contributions from Indigenous movements to food system and development politics by Sam Grey & Raj Patel © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014 URL: http://rajpatel.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Grey-Patel-2015-Food-Sovereignty-as-Decolonization.pdfDate visited: 20 March 2024 For strategic planners, forests are ‘an administrative category implying a desired land use’ whether or not trees are included, but it … Read more