The Forest Rights Act
It was enacted in 2006, and the forest rights Act came into effect in 2008. Considered a landmark piece of legislation as it attempts to correct historical injustice against forest dwellers in the colonial era and in independent India. It recognizes forest dwellers’ individual rights over their land and villagers’ right to manage and conserve the forest.
Individual Forest Right
Any person belonging to a schedule tribe can claim rights to live in and cultivate up to 4 hectares if he occupied it and depended on it as of December 13,2005. A non-tribal, in addition, will have to prove his family’s residence in the vicinity of the forest for 75 years prior to December 2005.
Community Forest Rights
The Act recognises the rights of a gram Sabha over forest land within the village boundaries or seasonal use of landscape for pastoral communities. This allows the villagers to own and collect, use and dispose of minor forest produce besides timber, including the right to use grazing land and water bodies and the right to protect and regenerate any community resource, among others
