Tribal groups claim Centre's forest encroachment data to NGT 'false', undermines Forest Rights Act

New Delhi: An umbrella group representing over 150 tribal and forest dwellers' organisations in the country said on Thursday that the central government's data on forest area encroachment, submitted to the National Green Tribunal (NGT), is not authentic as it has yet to fully implement the Forest Rights Act (FRA).

The Union Environment Ministry's response was not immediately available.

The Forest Rights Act, 2006, recognises the rights of tribals and forest-dependent communities over the land they have lived on and protected for generations. However, its implementation has been marked by violations, with a large number of claims wrongly rejected.

In 2019, while hearing a plea filed by a wildlife NGO, the Supreme Court ordered the eviction of over 17 lakh families whose FRA claims were rejected.

Following nationwide protests, the court put the order on hold in February 2019 and directed a review of the rejected claims.

However, many tribal and forest-dependent communities allege that the review process remained flawed, with the central and state governments failing to implement the law sincerely.

PTI on Tuesday reported that the Environment Ministry submitted a report to the NGT stating that, as of March 2024, a total of 13,05,668.1 hectares (or 13,056 sq km) of forest land was under encroachment in 25 states and Union Territories that have provided data so far.

Ten states have yet to submit data on "forest encroachments".

In April last year, after taking suo motu cognisance of a PTI report, the NGT ordered the ministry to collect data on encroachments and their status from the states and UTs.

The report was submitted to the NGT on March 28, just ahead of a scheduled Supreme Court hearing on Wednesday in a case challenging the constitutionality of the FRA.

While the hearing could not take place as a three-judge constitutional bench has yet to be formed, tribal and forest dwellers' organisations alleged that the report submitted to the NGT shows the central government continues to "doublespeak" on the protection of tribal and forest-dependent communities' rights under the FRA.

The Campaign for Survival and Dignity, a national platform of tribal and forest dwellers’ organisations in 10 states, including Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Gujarat, said in a statement that the NGT case poses another threat of mass evictions of tribals and other forest-dependent communities.

Researcher C R Bijoy said that when the SC ordered the eviction of claimants in 2019 after their applications were rejected in the anti-FRA case, the Union and state governments admitted that all rejected claims needed to be reviewed, as many were not rejected according to the law.  According to the law, the rights of forest dwellers must first be identified, recognised and recorded under the FRA. Only then can the issue of encroachment and its extent be considered.

However, FRA implementation has been "dragging on, stiffly resisted by the forest bureaucracy", for the last 16 years, the rights organisations said. They questioned how the government could present figures on encroachment when it had previously told the Supreme Court that the process of recognising and determining forest rights was incomplete and full of errors. 

They criticised the Environment Ministry for submitting what it called "false" data on encroachments to the NGT. The rights organisations asked why the ministry was shying away from acknowledging that recognising forest rights under the FRA should be the first step before addressing encroachments.  "How many of these 'encroachers' are actually forest rights holders? Is the government paving the way for another mass eviction order, this time through another court/tribunal?" they said.