Forest Rights Act: Over 1.6M Families Face Threat of Eviction From Forest Land

Ahead of the Supreme Court’s final hearing of the case challenging the constitutionality of the Forest Rights Act, the law remains poorly implemented and tribals and forest dwellers have no respite.
If the apex court upholds its previous eviction order, about 78 lakh individuals will be evicted from their land – an unprecedented scale of forced eviction undertaken by a democratic nation.
In Madhya Pradesh, officials have rejected at least 2.36 lakh individual claims that were previously rejected and whose claimants had applied for a review.

https://science.thewire.in/environment/supreme-court-forest-rights-eviction/

More than 16 lakh tribal people and forest-dwelling families face the threat of eviction as their claims over forest land have been rejected across states.

Their fate now hangs on a final hearing in the Supreme Court on November 10, when it will conclude the case challenging the constitutionality of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006.

The FRA recognises individual rights, community rights and other forest rights of tribal and forest-dwelling communities who had possession of forest land on or before December 13, 2005. In the same case, on February 13, 2019, the apex court had directed states to evict anyone whose claims had been rejected. Yet lakhs of claims to forest-land rights were to be filed at the time.

By PRUDHVIRAJ RUPAVATH

08/11/2022

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E23 Forests & People