Forest Rights Act, 2006

The Forest Rights Act, 2006 corrects 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 while linking their exercise to conservation and sustainable use.

Who can claim rights

• 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 both livelihood-related possession and collective control over customary forest resources.

• Individuals and communities may hold and live on forest land occupied for habitation or self-cultivation; individual titles are limited to actual occupation and cannot exceed 4 hectares.
• Communities receive 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 conserved for sustainable use.
• The Act recognises habitat rights of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups and pre-agricultural communities, as well as traditional and customary community rights.
• It covers rights over 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; married persons ordinarily receive joint registration in both spouses' names.
• No forest dweller may be evicted until the recognition and verification process is complete, and the Gram Sabha initiates the determination of claims.
• Customary rights do not include traditional hunting, trapping or extraction of body parts of wild animals.

How UPSC asks this