Forest Rights Act

Activist talk about the problem with making the state forest department the nodal agency for community forest resource rights.

An affidavit filed in the Supreme Court by the state government shows that over 16,000 claims under the Forest Rights Act were rejected by Gram Sabhas while grappling with problems like unavailability of records and lack of documentation.

In affidavits filed before the SC, the Maharashtra government said the bureaucracy-led District Level Committees wrongly rejected more than 22,509 forest rights claims. This could lead to the forcible eviction of many more forest dwellers.

The rejections of claims could affect millions more vulnerable Adivasis, according to documents accessed by HuffPost India.