REPORT OF THE FACT-FINDING COMMITTEE ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE FOREST RIGHTS ACT, 2006

India has the world’s largest number of forest dwellers: numbering nearly 200 million1 . It constitutes about 16% of India’s population and comprises both tribals and other communities.

The law governing forests in India is the Indian Forest Act, 1927 and State Forest Acts. The focus of the Indian Forest Act, 1927 enacted by the Britishers was on ‘protecting the forest’ from the ‘forestdwelling communities’ so that the trees and other resources could be made available for the larger economic and strategic interest of the State. The fact that forests have to be ‘protected’ from the very communities who had lived there since immemorial times, was followed in the legislations enacted even in the post-independence era. Thus, Forest laws enacted by states such as Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala followed the same framework as the Indian Forest Act, 1927.

The enactment of the Scheduled Tribe and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 [‘FRA’] marked a fundamental shift in the way forest dwellers were viewed within the legal framework. The FRA considers forest dwellers not an illegal occupant but rightful claimants, whose rights have been denied, resulting in “historical injustice”. This historic injustice was sought to be corrected through a series of legal means, contained in the FRA, and the Rules enacted for the purpose.

FFC constituted under the Chairmanship of Justice (Retd) Shri S N Dhingra for studying the “Impact of Forest Rights Acts 2006” and CFJ, yesterday submitted its Report to the Hon’ble Minister Of Tribal Affairs.
The meeting was presided by the Hon’ble Minister, participated by Secretary, Additional Secretary and other senior officials connected with this subject.

Our delegation imcluded Justice (Retd) Shri S N Dhingra, Chairman FFC, Shri Ritwick Dutta, Managint Secretary FFC, Dr T D Dogra, Trustee CFJ, Shri Chander Wadhwa, Trustee CFJ and Ravi Mohan Harjai, Managing Trustee, CFJ.

Justice S N Dhingra presenting the Report on FFC FRA 2006 to the Hon’ble Minister For Agriculture and Tribal Affairs.

Justice Dhingra and Shri Ritwick Dutta gave summary of the findings of FFC.
Dr Dogra, Chander ji and myself gave details about our collaboration with Amity University Haryana for jointly doing a detailed research on this subject.