Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional

urd

would mean a period of 25 years.

ct 2006, ularly known as the For l Forest Dwellers ), (Recognition is a watershed of in Forest the

t and prolonged struggled of Adivasi’s and other forest dwellers of India. The new

forest management. The statement of object and reason (SOR) of the RA, attributed the

W attempts to right that historic injustice and d gives forest communities a primary role in

delay in recognising forest rights to colonial rule which had ignored this reality for economic

n. The SOR admitted that after Independence, in its enthusiasm to protect natural

rnsources, the state had persisted with colonial practices, The simplicity of tribal people and

their general ignorance of modern regulatory frameworks precluded them from asserting their

genuine claim ns. The SOR suggested that insecurity of tenure and 14 fear of eviction had

engendered a sense of alienation amongst tribal communities. The SOR explained the

rationale of the FRA in terms of vesting forest rights and occupation of forest land with

st-dwelling communities who were integral to the survival and sustainability of the forest

ecosystem, but whose rights could not be recorded. The FRA's salient features are as follows:

1. The Act recognises and vests rights and occupation in forest land in forest dwelling

Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest-dwellers who have resided in such forests for

2. The Act provides for recognition of forest rights of other traditional forest dwellers

provided they have for at least three generations prior to 13.12.2005 primarily resided in and
have depended on the forest or forestlands for bona-fide livelihood necds. A generation would mean a
period of 25 years.

3. The cut-off date for the recognition and vesting of forest rights under the Act will be

13.12.2005.

4. The Act provides for the ceiling of occupation of forestland for purposes of recognition of

forest rights to the area under occupation and in no case exceeding an area of four hectares.

5. The Act provides for conferring rights in national parks and sanctuaries habitat.

6. The Act provides for the right to hold and live in forest land under individual or common

occupation for habitation or for self-cultivation for livelihood by a member or members of

forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest-dwellers.

7. The Act recognises the right of ownership access to collect; use and dispose of minor

forest produce which was traditionally collected within or outside village boundaries. The

Act defines minor forest produce to include all non-timber forest produce of plant origin,

meluding bamboo, brush wood, stumps, cane, tussah, cocoons, honey, wax, lac, tendu or

kendu leaves, medicinal plants and herbs roots and tubers.

S. The Act recognises the right to in situ rehabilitation including alternative land in cases

where Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest-dwellers have been illegally evicted or

displaced from forestland of any description without granting their legal entitlement to

rehabilitation prior to 13.12.2005.

9. The Act provides for forest rights relating to government providing for diversion of forest

land for schools, hospitals, anganwadis, drinking water, water pipelines, roads, electric and

telecommunications lines.

10. The rights conferred under the Act are heritable but not alienable or transferable and to be

registered jointly in the name of both spouses in the case of married persons and a single head

in the case of houscholds headed by a single person. In the absence of a direct heir the

heritable right shall pass on to the next of kin.

11. The Act provides that no member of a forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes or other

traditional forest-dwellers shall be evicted or removed from forest land under his occupation
until the recognition and verification procedure is completed.

12. Gram Sabhas have been designated as competent authorities for initiating the process of

determining the nature and extent of individual or community forest rights or both that may

be given to forest dwellers.

Eligibility criteria

Elivibility to get rights under the Act is contined to those who "primarily reside in

forests" and who depend on forests and forest land for a livelihood Further, either the elaimant must be
a member of the Scheduled Tribes scheduled in that area or must have been

residing in the forest for 75 years,

Process of recognition of rights

The Act provides that the gram sabha, or village assembly, will initially pass a

resolution recommending whose rights to which resources should be recognised (i.e. which

lands belong to whom, how much land was under the cultivation of each person as on 13 Dec

2005, etc.). This resolution is then screened and approved at the level of the sub-division and

subsequently at the district level. The screening committees consist of three government

officials (Forest, Revenue and Tribal Welfare departments) and three elected members of the

local body at that level. These committees also hear appeals.

Resettlement for wildlife conservation

The Act lays out a procedure by which people can be resettled from areas if it is found

to be necessary for wildlife conservation. The first step is to show that relocation is

scientifically necessary and no other alternative is available; this has to be done through a

process of public consultation. The second step

the resettlement. Finally, the resettlement must provide not

livelihood.7

that the local community must consent to

only compensation but a secure

Misunderstanding the Act as a land distribution scheme

A great deal of the debate is fuelled by misunderstandings of the purpose of the Act.

The most common is that the purpose of the law is to distribute forest land to forest dwellers
or tribal, often claimed to be at the rate of 4 hectares per family. The Act is intended to

recognise lands that are already under cultivation as on 13 December 2005, not to grant title

to any new lands.

Laws and Institutions

Customary laws and institutions differ from one tribe to another, but they are

community-oriented. Typically, village heads or council of the village and/or clan allocate

forest land to a family for shifting (jhum) cultivation. If a plot is abandoned, the land g0es

back to the community. Selling of land is not permitted nor is community land traditionally

inherited or transferred to individual ownership. However, both selling of land and transfer of

land to individual ownership are encroaching

as a result of both internal and external

pressures. Nowadays, local tribal leaders are known to have given away land/forest throuoh

what is known as "no objection certificate to commercial ventures

documentation of having passed environmental and other safeguards. In other cases, villave

that provide

councils have been withholding permits for mining -reassuring evidence that consent and

self-determination do work for the future sometimes

The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest

Rights) Act, 2006 is a progressive national policy that seeks to redress the historical injustice

done to the tribes and traditional dwellers of the forest. It has also been called the Forest

Rights Act, the Tribal Rights Act, the Tribal Bill, and the Tribal Land Act. This Act. for the

first time has, inter alia. recognised and vested the forest rights and occupation in the forest

dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional dwellers who have been residing in such

forest for generations but whose rights could not be recorded. Except for Assam and Tripura,

the other six states of the North East have not implemented it with the argument that there is

already community ownership of the forest and that there is a fear that external laws might

later override the existing local authorities.

Conclusion

The passing of the Forest Rights Act 2006 undoubtedly represents a seminal moment
in India's highly contested forest politics. For the first time an Act has recognised the

historical injustice' perpetrated by the state. The forest rights on ancestral lands and their

habitat were not adequately recognized in the consolidation of State forests during the

colonial period as well as in independent India resulting in historical injustice to the forest

dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers (FRA 2006) The Act makes

provision for the restitution of rights to forest dependent households.

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