Forest Rights Act, 2006

The Forest Rights Act, 2006 addresses the historical denial of rights to communities whose lives and livelihoods depend on forests. It recognises individual and community forest rights of forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes and eligible Other Traditional Forest Dwellers. These rights combine livelihood and tenure security with authority and responsibility for conservation and sustainable use.

Who is eligible

• Forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes must primarily reside in and depend on forests or forest land for bona fide livelihood needs.
• Other Traditional Forest Dwellers must establish such residence and dependence for at least three generations, meaning 75 years, before 13 December 2005.

Rights recognised

The Act recognises livelihood, tenure and customary rights held individually or collectively by forest-dependent communities.

• Individuals and communities may hold and live on forest land occupied for habitation or self-cultivation. Recognition is limited to actual occupation and cannot exceed 4 hectares.
• Communities have ownership and rights to collect, use and dispose of minor forest produce, along with customary access to grazing, fishing, water bodies and seasonal resources.
• A Gram Sabha may protect, regenerate, conserve and manage a community forest resource traditionally protected for sustainable use.
• The Act recognises habitat rights of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups and pre-agricultural communities, besides other traditional and customary community rights.
• It covers disputed lands, conversion of forest villages into revenue villages, and conversion of eligible leases, grants or pattas into titles.
• Communities may access biodiversity and claim community rights over related intellectual property and traditional knowledge.
• Eligible persons illegally displaced before the cut-off date may receive in situ rehabilitation, including alternative land.

Nature and safeguards of rights

• Recognised rights are heritable but not transferable or alienable. For married persons, titles are ordinarily registered jointly in both spouses' names.
• The Gram Sabha initiates the process of determining claims, and no forest dweller may be evicted until recognition and verification are complete.
• Customary rights do not include hunting, trapping or extraction of body parts of wild animals.