Previous Year Question

The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 is commonly known as the Forest Rights Act—FRA, 2006. The Ministry of Tribal Affairs is the nodal ministry responsible for its implementation at the national level. Therefore, option (d) is correct.

The Act seeks to recognise the forest rights of forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers whose rights were not adequately recorded during the consolidation of State forests in the colonial period and after Independence.

The principal rights recognised under the Act include:

• Individual rights over forest land held for habitation or self-cultivation for livelihood.

• The right to collect, use and dispose of minor forest produce.

• Rights relating to grazing, fishing, water bodies and other community forest resources.

• Habitat rights of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups.

• The right to protect, regenerate, conserve and manage community forest resources.

• The right to convert forest villages, old habitations and unsurveyed villages into revenue villages.

Forest rights recognised under the Act are heritable but cannot be sold or transferred to another person. Individual forest-land rights are restricted to the area under actual occupation and cannot exceed four hectares. The provision does not grant new forest land; it recognises eligible occupation already existing before the prescribed cut-off date.

The claims process begins with the Gram Sabha, which receives and verifies claims. The claims are subsequently examined by the Sub-Divisional Level Committee and the District Level Committee. The District Level Committee is the final authority for approving the record of forest rights.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change administers broader matters relating to forests and the environment, but the nodal ministry for implementing the FRA, 2006 is the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.