From rights to ruin: India's forests fall to corruption, FRA misuse

There has been a surge in deforestation in the notified forests of India since the promulgation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006. The Act sought to recognise the rights of occupation of forest land by tribal communities as of December 13, 2005, and by families of other traditional forest dwellers (OTFDs) for three generations (75 years) to this date.

Time and again, encroachments on forest lands have been regularised. The Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, applicable October 25, 1980, saw states ensure that all illegal occupations of forest land up to that date were regularised. Across party lines, successive governments have supported the grabbing of forest land and its subsequent regularisation.

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA), the nodal agency for FRA implementation, has further relaxed provisions of the FRA rules. To date, individual forest rights (IFR) have been granted over 3.5 million hectares of forest land. Section 3(1) of the Act lists 13 types of rights; among them, IFR, community forest rights (CFR), and community forest resource rights (CFRR) have the greatest potential for unprecedented deforestation.

Non-governmental organisations in each state assist communities in filing claims before respective gram sabhas, supported by evidence. Though the Act has been in place since January 2008, IFR and CFR claims continue unabated.

For electoral gains, ruling parties encourage tribal and OTFD families to come up with more claims. In turn, claimants clear tree growth, occupy forest land and then file claims. The only reliable evidence is satellite imagery for the relevant period, but MoTA has directed that such imagery be disregarded if it conflicts with a claim.

The claims are filed before gram sabhas, which are then recommended to the sub-divisional level committee (SDLC) and then forwarded to the district level committee (DLC), headed by the collector/district magistrate, for final approval. Jurisdictional forest officers are represented on both SDLC and DLC.

The Act has been grossly misused in states such as Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Odisha. While revenue and tribal departments were under political patronage and actively supported the filing of fresh claims, the forest department failed to stand against forest destruction.

In the run-up to the Telangana Assembly election 2023, the chief minister promised to distribute 11.5 lakh acres of forest lands (four lakh acres for tribal families and 7.5 lakh acres to OTFDs). Although many forest officers opposed wrong and dubious claims at SDLC and DLC levels, their objections were bypassed, and claims over four lakh acres were approved in favour of tribal families. Claims by OTFD families over 7.5 lakh acres were kept in abeyance, but the tree cover in these parcels has since been destroyed and the land occupied.

However, in many cases, OTFDs illegally occupying forest land have had their claims regularised in the name of tribal family. The Telangana government has initiated the ‘Raithu Bandhu’ scheme, providing direct money transfers to all patta holders, including forest rights holders. The cash benefits for such OTFDs now go to the respective tribal, in whose name the rights have been approved. In some cases, OTFDs have even lost possession of the land to tribals – the registered right-holders – leading to tensions in the community that the administration struggles to resolve.

The claims relating to IFR and CFR are now limited; NGOs have turned their focus to community forest resource rights. The Act provides for the approval of CFRR if an individual or community is the owner of the forest resource and has been protecting, regenerating and managing it as of December 13, 2005 (for tribals) or 75 years prior to this date in respect to other traditional forest dwellers. Gram sabhas are entitled to claim for CFRR following a similar process, with final approval for the claims resting with the DLC.

MoTA’s website shows that CFRR has already been approved for over 18 million acres, mainly in states such as Chhattisgarh (5.1 million acres), Maharashtra (3.6 million acres), Madhya Pradesh (1.4 million acres), and Gujarat (1.2 million acres).

Considering forests under joint management, forests within the village limits and the forests traditionally opened for collection of usufructs, duly deleting overlapping areas, a report was published by Oxfam, an umbrella NGO, in 2016, according to which 80 million acres of India’s 190 million acres of forests should be granted to gram sabhas as CFRR. The report was misleading, as joint management areas have never been owned by communities.

Nearly a quarter of the potential area identified by Oxfam has already been transferred to gram sabhas for management, and these forests are subjected to faster degradation.

In Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district, bamboo forests managed by gram sabhas were cleared in one stroke and failed to regenerate. Such an approach is not recognised in any forest management practice. In Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, gram sabhas have even obstructed the entry of forest officers into CFRR areas, while valuable trees have reportedly been cut and taken away.

We are already facing frequent and destructive climatic catastrophes as the planet warms significantly. We cannot afford to lose our forests.

(The writer is a retired principal chief conservator of forests—head of the Forest Force, Karnataka)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.