Recognition of Forest Rights of Scheduled Tribes: In Context of Community Forest Rights

Abstract

In 2005, the ministry of tribal affairs mandated to formulate comprehensive legislation to redress the historical injustice done to the tribal community. Accordingly, the Forest Rights Bill was introduced in the Parliament. Due to protests both from environmentalists and wildlife groups the Bill was referred to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC). As many tribal forest dwellers had been served with eviction notices in May 2002 for being encroachers and they could not produce residential evidence in the forest, the JPC recommended that a caught update for the settlement of rights’ be extended to 13th December 2005. It also recommended the inclusion of on scheduled tribe ‘traditional’ forest dwellers (OTFDs) living in the forest for three generations within its ambit. It also recommended multiple uses for shifting cultivators and removed the land ceiling of 2.5 hectares for land rights. The other recommendation of JPC included ensuring of minimum support price (MSP) for minor forest produces (MFP) and the Gram Sabha as the final authority for settlement of rights. The Gram Sabha was recommended to be the center stage with PESA as a reference point. But when the Bill was introduced in the Parliament, the pre-eminence position of PESA in relation to Gram Sabha was ignored. Finally, in 2006, The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act (or simply Forest Rights Act - FRA), was enacted with the notification of its administrative rules. The Act inherently recognizes that a healthy ecosystem is compatible with social justice technically holds precedence over all other forest and wildlife-related laws. It provides for restitution of traditional forest rights to forest dwellers across India, including individual rights to cultivated land in forested landscapes and collective rights to control, manage and use forests and its resources as common property. It also stipulates the conditions for the relocation of forest dwellers from ‘critical wildlife habitations’ with their ‘free informed consent’ and their rehabilitation in alternative land. This article deals with the forest rights in general and community forest resources rights envisaged in the said Act in particular. For this purpose, this article begins by elaborating the contributing factors in the enactment of the said Act and discusses the historical background in detail. Further, it elaborates on the provisions pertaining to the community forest resource rights envisaged in the Act and explains the types of forest resources used by the communities in the States covered under Schedule V of the Constitution.