Forest Rights of Indigenous People in India

Abstract

In India, the indigenous peoples are predominantly composed of the large and diverse tribal populations scattered across several States. In Indian languages, there is no exact equivalent for the “tribe”, but close synonymous are vanavasis (Forest dwellers) or adivasi (Original inhabitants). Indigenous forest people use their land in many different ways – for fishing, hunting, shifting agriculture, the gathering of wild forest products and other activities. For them, the forest is the very basis of survival and its resources have to be harvested in a sustainable manner. But when traditional life styles change and, for example, industrial logging or mining takes place, over use of resources can lead to conflict. Objective1. To critically analyze the Laws relating to protection of rights of forest dwellers.2. To study the role of Indian Judiciary relating to forest rights.3. To analyse the hardship faced by the indigenous people.4. To make the recommendation for the management of forest Land & rights of forest dwellers over the forest Land.