Forest Right Act

The Forest Rights Act (FRA) of 2006 affirms the rights of forest living tribal communities and other traditional forest dwellers to forest resources. These communities relied on a range of purposes, including subsistence, housing, and other socio-cultural requirements. Forest management policies in both colonial and post-colonial India, including Acts, Rules, and Forest Policies of Participatory Forest Management policies, did not recognize the STs'(scheduled tribes) symbiotic relationship with the forests, reflected in their reliance on the forest as well as their traditional wisdom regarding forest conservation, until the enactment of this Act. The Act also ensures the forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest inhabitants’ land tenure, livelihood, and food security.

The need for the Forest Rights Act:

Forest rights of forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest inhabitants on all forest lands must be defined as the following rights, which secure individual or communal tenure or both, for this Act:-

• A member or members of a forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribe or other traditional forest dwellers have the right to hold and reside in the forest land under individual or communal occupation for habitation or self-cultivation for sustenance;
• Communal rights, such as nistar, by any name, including those employed in former Princely States, Zamindari, or similar transitional regimes;
• Ownership and access to collect, use, and dispose of small forest produce collected traditionally within or beyond village bounds;
• Other communal rights of use or entitlements, such as fish and other aquatic goods, grazing (both settled and transhumant), and nomadic or pastoralist populations’ traditional seasonal resource access;
• Rights for primitive tribal groupings and pre-agricultural communities, including community tenures of habitat and habitation;
• Rights to or over disputed lands, regardless of terminology, in any state where claims are contested;
• Rights to convert Pattas, leases, or grants issued by any local authority or State Government on forest lands to titles; 
•  Rights to settlement and conversion of all forest villages, old habitation, unsurveyed villages, and other villages in forests, whether recorded, notified, or not into revenue villages; 
• Rights to protect, regenerate, conserve, or manage any community forest resource that they have been traditionally protecting and conserving;
• Any other traditional right customarily enjoyed by forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes or other traditional forest dwellers, but excluding the traditional right of hunting, trapping, or extracting a part of the body of any species of a wild animal; 
• Any other traditional right customarily enjoyed by forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes or other traditional forest dwellers, as the case may be, which is not mentioned in clauses

What are the rights availed under FRA and the procedures for Vesting of Forest Rights?

The Gram Sabha will have the authority to begin the process of determining the nature and extent of individual or community forest rights, or both, that may be granted to forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers within the local limits of its jurisdiction under this Act by receiving claims, consolidating and verifying them, and preparing a map delineating the area of each recommended claim in the manner prescribed for exemplification.

Any aggrieved individual by a Gram Sabha resolution may file a petition with the Sub-Divisional Level Committee established under the sub-section. The Sub-Divisional Level Committee will consider and decide the petition. Provided, however, that all such petitions must be filed within sixty days after the Gram Sabha adopting of the resolution. Further, no such petition shall be dismissed without giving the aggrieved person a sufficient opportunity to plead his case.

The State Government shall appoint a Sub-Divisional Level Committee to evaluate Gram Sabha’s resolution and compile a record of forest rights, which will be forwarded to the District Level Committee for a final decision through the Sub-Divisional Officer.

Any person who is aggrieved by the Sub-Divisional Level Committee’s decision may file a petition with the District Level Committee within sixty days of the Sub-Divisional Level Committee’s decision. The District Level Committee will consider and decide the petition. Provided, however, that no petition against a Gram Sabha resolution shall be filed directly with the District Level Committee unless it has first been filed with and examined by the Sub-Divisional Level Committee:

Furthermore, no such petition shall be dismissed against the aggrieved person unless the aggrieved person has been given a reasonable opportunity to explain his case.

Conclusion:

The Supreme Court recently ordered governments to release forest land in the custody of citizens whose claims under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) of 2006 were denied. Forest rights groups have protested the decision, claiming that wildlife protection cannot be prioritised over natural justice goals. For a long time, many people, particularly scheduled tribes, have lived in and around forests in a symbiotic connection. This relationship has resulted in established or informal customary laws of usage and extraction, which are frequently guided by ethical views and behaviours, ensuring that forests do not degrade too much. Several Acts and policies, including the Central Government’s three Indian Forest Acts of 1865, 1894, and 1927, and various state forest Acts, limited local populations’ centuries-old customary use rights.