Parliament Question: Recognition of Forest Rights for Tribals

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF TRIBAL AFFAIRS LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO-1992 To Be Answered On- 31/07/2025 RECOGNITION OF FOREST RIGHTS FOR TRIBALS

1992. Shri Sudama Prasad:

Shri Amra Ram:

Shri Kodikunnil Suresh:

Will the Minister of TRIBAL AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Government is aware of the status of implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 and if so, the details thereof, State/UT-wise;

(b) the number of applications — individual and community — received by the Government for grant of pattas under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) and the number of applications out of them accepted, rejected and pending during the last five years, year and State/UT-wise;

(c) whether the Government is contemplating to reconsider the rejected applications, if so, the details thereof along with the time by which it is likely to be done and if not, the reasons therefor;

(d) the action being contemplated by the Government against forest and other department officials who are evicting Adivasis and other traditional forest dwellers in the name of illegality;

(e) the total land area distributed to beneficiaries in Kerala under the said Act and the number of ST families who have received legal entitlements;

(f) whether any bottlenecks, administrative delays or legal disputes have been reported in Kerala regarding the implementation of the Act and if so, the details thereof along with the steps taken to address them; and

(g) the major benefits availed by forest-dwelling communities in Kerala under the Forest Rights Act including access to livelihood schemes, welfare entitlements and community resource management? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR TRIBAL AFFAIRS (SHRI DURGA DAS UIKEY)

(a) & (b): As per the provisions of “Scheduled Tribes And Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition Of Forest Rights) Act, 2006” and Rules made thereunder, the State Governments are responsible for implementation of various provisions of the FRA, which is being implemented in 20 States and 1 UT. Ministry of Tribal Affairs monitors Monthly Progress Reports submitted by the States/UTs. As reported by States/UTs, cumulatively till 31st May 2025, a total of 51,23,104 claims have been filed at Gram Sabha Level, comprising 49,11,495 individual and 2,11,609 community claims. Out of which a total of 25,11,375 (49.02%) titles were distributed, comprising 23,89,670 individual and 1,21,705 community titles. A total of 18,62,056 (36.35%) claims have been rejected and 749,673 (14.63%) claims have been pending for disposal. The State wise details are at Annexure.

However, , The State/UT wise details in the form of Monthly Progress Report for the last 5 years are available on this Ministry’s website - https://tribal.nic.in/FRA.aspx.(c): As per the directions of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in 2019 in Writ Petition 108/2008 to Chief Secretaries , all States have to complete the exercise of review of rejection of claims in a time-bound manner. MoTA has asked states in various review meetings and through letters to inter alia have the meetings of the State Level Monitoring Committee (SLMC), to be chaired by Chief Secretary, at least once in three months, to monitor the implementation process of FRA and also to review the rejected claims as per extant procedures. MoTA has been exhorting all State Governments to abide by the provisions contained in FRA and ensure that all eligible claimants are provided the rights which are due to them.

(d): FRA provides safeguards against forced eviction. Section 4(5) of FRA provides that Save as otherwise provided, no member of a forest dwelling Scheduled Tribe or other traditional forest dwellers shall be evicted or removed from the forest land under his occupation till the recognition and verification procedure is complete. There is a provision of petition by aggrieved persons to SDLC and DLC [Section 6(2) and 6(4) of FRA]. The grievances /representations received in the Ministry regarding violation of FRA (including eviction) are forwarded to the State / UTs concerned, to ensure that legitimate claimants are not denied their forest rights. Further to resolve field level issues with the Forest department, the MoTA has also issued two joint advisories with the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change dated 14.03.2024 and 06.07.2021.

(e): As informed by the State Government of Kerala, a total of 29,422 beneficiaries have been given Individual Forest Rights to 38,794.10 Acres of land.

(f): State Government of Kerala has informed that there are no legal disputes, administrative delays, or other bottlenecks related to the implementation of the Forest Rights Act in Kerala.

(g): In order to accelerate benefit of various schemes to the forest right holders in full measure, Ministry under scheme of Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan (DA-JGUA), has inter alia taken several initiatives like Mapping of Potential Area under FRA, digitization of legacy data and claim process, support to Gram Sabha for preparation and execution of Community Forest Resource Rights (CFR) Management Plans and setting up dedicated FRA cells at the State and district/subdivision levels, for a period of two years to facilitate the settlement claim process under FRA. Under DA-JGUA, Ministry also supports FRA patta holders through convergence with several schemes of Department of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries where the respective scheme guidelines have been modified to limit the beneficiary contribution, to only 10 % wherever needed.

For the state Government of Kerala, MoTA has approved an amount of Rs. 129.89 Lakhs for setting up FRA Cells at State and at 12 districts level, as per the proposal received from Kerala. Further, State Government of Kerala has informed that District Collectors have been directed to convert the Scheduled Tribe areas which have been granted individual forest rights under the Forest Rights Act, into revenue villages. Livelihood schemes are being implemented through the schemes of the Central Government, PM-JANMAN and DA-JGUA, and other schemes of the State Government, in collaboration with other state departments or independently.Annexure Statement of Claims and Distribution of title deeds, Details of claims disposed of, rejected claims and pending claims under “The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006” reported by States/UT as on 31.05.2025:

No. of Claims received No. of Titles Distributed % Claims Total No. upto 31.05.2025 upto 31.05.2025 disposed No. of of Total No. of S. off with States Claims Claims Claims No. respect to Individual Community Total Individual Community Total Rejected Disposed Pending claims off received Andhra 1 285,098 3,294 288,392 226,651 1,822 228,473 58,410 286,883 99.48% 1,509 Pradesh 2 Assam 148,965 6,046 155,011 57,325 1,477 58,802 NA/NR 58,802 37.93% 96,209 3 Bihar 4,696 0 4,696 191 0 191 4,496 4,687 99.81% 9 4 Chhattisgarh 890,220 57,259 947,479 481,432 52,636 534,068 406,787 940,855 99.30% 6,624 5 Goa 9,757 379 10,136 856 15 871 447 1,318 13.00% 8,818 6 Gujarat 183,055 7,187 190,242 98,732 4,792 103,524 2,331 105,855 55.64% 84,387 Himachal 7 4,883 683 5,566 662 146 808 54 862 15.49% 4,704 Pradesh 8 Jharkhand 107,032 3,724 110,756 59,866 2,104 61,970 28,107 90,077 81.33% 20,679 9 Karnataka 288,549 5,940 294,489 14,981 1,345 16,326 253,269 269,595 91.55% 24,894 10 Kerala 44,455 1,014 45,469 29,422 282 29,704 12,835 42,539 93.56% 2,930 Madhya 11 585,326 42,187 627,513 266,901 27,976 294,877 322,407 617,284 98.37% 10,229 Pradesh 12 Maharashtra 397,897 11,259 409,156 199,667 8,668 208,335 172,631 380,966 93.11% 28,190 13 Odisha 701,148 35,024 736,172 462,067 8,832 470,899 144,636 615,535 83.61% 120,637 14 Rajasthan 113,162 5,213 118,375 49,215 2,551 51,766 65,921 117,687 99.42% 688 15 Tamil Nadu 33,119 1,548 34,667 15,442 1,066 16,508 12,711 29,219 84.28% 5,448 16 Telangana 651,822 3,427 655,249 230,735 721 231,456 94,426 325,882 49.73% 329,367 17 Tripura 200,557 164 200,721 127,931 101 128,032 68,848 196,880 98.09% 3,841 Uttar 18 92,972 1,194 94,166 22,537 893 23,430 70,736 94,166 100.00% 0 Pradesh 19 Uttarakhand 3,587 3,091 6,678 184 1 185 6,493 6,678 100.00% 0 West 20 131,962 10,119 142,081 44,444 686 45,130 96,587 141,717 99.74% 364 Bengal Jammu & 21 33,233 12,857 46,090 429 5,591 6,020 39,924 45,944 99.68% 146 Kashmir TOTAL 4,911,495 211,609 5,123,104 2,389,670 121,705 2,511,375 1,862,056 4,373,431 85.37% 749,673 *****