The Hindu Editorial Analysis - 18th December 2023 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly - UPSC PDF Download

An uphill struggle to grow the Forest Rights Act

Why in News?

On December 18, 2006, the Rajya Sabha endorsed the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, enacted by the Lok Sabha. This Act, commonly known as the Forest Rights Act, or FRA, marks a watershed in India’s socio-environmental legislation, as it attempts to put an end to the long-drawn conflict over supposed ‘forest encroachments’.

What is Forest Rights Act 2006?

• The FRA, which was enacted in 2006, recognises the rights of tribal communities that live in the forest as well as other traditional forest dwellers to the forest resources that were essential to their ability to provide for a variety of needs, including subsistence, habitation, and other sociocultural requirements.
• It acknowledges and grants the occupation of forest land to other traditional forest dwellers (OTFD) and forest dwelling scheduled tribes (FDST), who have lived there for many generations.
• While protecting the FDST and OTFD's way of life and food security, it enhances the conservation regime for the woods.
• The procedure for assessing the kind and scope of Individual Forest Rights (IFR), Community Forest Rights (CFR), or both that may be granted to FDST and OTFD must be started by the Gram Sabha.
• The FRA emphasises and addresses conservation and management of India's natural resources, with a focus on issues of poverty reduction and pro-poor growth.

Forest Rights Act, 2006 - Objectives

• To right the historical wrong done to forest dwelling communities.
• To ensure the land tenure, livelihood, and food security of Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers.
• To strengthen the forest conservation regime by including responsibilities and authority on Forest Rights holders for sustainable use, biodiversity conservation, and ecological balance maintenance.

Rights under the Forest Rights Act, 2006

Title Rights

• Subject to a limit of 4 hectares, it grants FDST and OTFD the right to ownership of land cultivated by tribal people or forest inhabitants.
• No additional lands will be awarded; ownership only extends to property that the concerned family is currently cultivating.

Use Rights

• Dwellers have the right to use grazing grounds, minor forest products, and other regions.

Relief and Development Rights

• Rehabilitation in cases of illegal eviction or forced displacement, as well as basic amenities, subject to forest protection restrictions.

Forest Management Rights

• Rights related to forest management include the ability to safeguard any community forest resource that has historically been safeguarded and preserved for future use.

Who can claim these Rights?

• Members or communities of Scheduled Tribes who live primarily in and rely on forests or forest lands for legitimate livelihood needs.
• It can also be claimed by any member or community who has lived in forests land for at least three generations (75 years) prior to the 13th of December, 2005 for legitimate livelihood needs.
• The Gram Sabha has the authority to begin the process of determining the nature and scope of Individual Forest Rights (IFR) or Community Forest Rights (CFR) or both that may be granted to FDST and OTFD.

Procedure for Claiming the Rights

• First, the gramme sabha (the entire village assembly, not just the gramme panchayat) makes a recommendation, such as who has been cultivating land for how long, what minor forest produce is collected, and so on.
• The gramme sabha serves in this capacity because it is a public body in which all citizens participate, making it fully democratic and transparent.
• The recommendation of the gramme sabha is reviewed by screening committees at the taluka and district levels.
• The final decision is made by the district level committee. The Committees have six members, three of whom are government officers and three of whom are elected.
• Anyone who believes a claim is false can appeal to the Committees at both the taluka and district levels, and if they prove their case, the right is denied.
• Finally, the land recognised under this Act cannot be sold or transferred.

Forest Rights Act, 2006 - Significance

• For the first time, community rights and rights to common property resources (CPR) have been acknowledged.
• This legislation has highlighted individual rights of the marginalised and indigenous populations as well as other rights.
• The statute mentions converting all forest villages, old habitation villages, unsurveyed villages, and other villages into these, which has given rise to the idea of revenue villages.
• It enhances the forest's conservation regime and guarantees the livelihood and food security of other forest dwellers as well as Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers.
• The historic connections between marginal communities and community forest resources are safeguarded by monitoring and management of these resources.
• The way these communities have historically used the forest resource for sustainable development is well documented.
• In a manner, this law safeguards intellectual property rights as well as traditional ecological and cultural knowledge.
• It broadens the scope of the Constitution's 5th and 6th Schedules, which safeguard indigenous populations' claims to the lands and forests they call home.
• The 2006 Forest Rights Act safeguards the rights of the displaced communities. One of the causes of the Naxal movement, which had an impact on states like Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Jharkhand, was the alienation of tribes.
• FRA 2006 also acknowledges and protects the rights of marginalised and indigenous groups over developmental operations.
• The legislation will guarantee that individuals have the ability to manage their forests independently, which will limit official exploitation of forest resources, enhance forest governance, and improve management of tribal rights.

Forest Rights Act, 2006 - Challenges

• The argument about whether the measure would cause more encroachment on already problematic forest regions has begun.
• Although the legislation strives to focus on the needs of the forest residents, it fails to accomplish this goal when the number of households being evicted from these areas rises as a result of their claims being rejected by the government.
• Due to their essential authority to decide on the requirements and demands of marginal populations on a parcel of forest land, the sub-divisional level committee's role is frequently questioned.
• Forestry agencies' seeming unwillingness to transfer their forest holdings has caused problems.
• Tribes like the Baigas have accused the department of failing to support their claim to the land, criticising the forest department's role in allowing forest dwellers to sow in the forest and reap the benefits.
• Additionally, the tribes and communities are unable to establish their claim to the forest area, and the legislation is insufficient to support their position.
• Given that degraded land constitutes about 40% of forests, the government's role in allowing commercial plantings on it is also contested.

Forest Rights Act, 2006 - Way Forward

• To support the mission-mode implementation of FRA, it is critical that the governments at the Central and State levels be reinforced with people and financial resources.
• In addition to utilising technology to map and track the application of FRA, the forest bureaucracy needs to be overhauled in order to deliver services to gram sabhas.
• The recognition of CFR rights would shift Indian forest governance toward a community conservation regime focused on food security and livelihood.
• At the local level, large-scale awareness and information dissemination campaigns informing both tribal and lower-level officials are required.
• It is critical to develop a detailed training and capacity-building strategy for those responsible for implementing the FRA, such as Panchayats, Gram Sabhas, village level Forest Rights committees, and so on.
• To make it easier for the Gram Sabha to identify and file claims for individual and community rights, the relevant maps and documents should be made available to the Forest Rights Committee and claimants.

Conclusion

The Act empowers forest dwellers to access and use forest resources in the traditional manner, to protect, conserve, and manage forests, to protect forest dwellers from unlawful evictions, and to provide basic development facilities for the community of forest dwellers to access education, health, nutrition, infrastructure, and so on.