Ancestral Forest Lands of Tribes and their Rights in India

The inhabitants of the woodland Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest residents are critical to the forest ecosystem's existence and sustenance. The failure to recognise their rights over their ancestral forest lands and habitats during the colonial period and in independent India has resulted in grave injustice. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (No.2 of 2007), or simply Forest Right Acts, was enacted to correct the injustice. The Forest Rights Act envisages, recognising, documenting, and vesting forest rights and occupation on forest land with Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest residents. It establishes a framework for recording the forest rights that have been vested, as well as the nature of the evidence required for such recognition and vesting in respect of forest land, and strengthening the forest conservation regime. It also ensures the livelihood and food security of forest dwellers such as Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest residents. However, nothing has changed even after six years of implementation. This paper will discuss the Forest Rights Act and its implications among the scheduled tribes of west Bengal and Chhattisgarh, India. Moreover, this paper will highlight on the issues faced by the Scheduled in terms of forest dwellings and other factors that are covered under this act.