Forest Rights Titles

14 Aug 2025 GS 3 Environment

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Context: Chhattisgarh Govt. Cuts Thousands of Forest Rights Titles

Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006: Recognises and vests rights to use forest land for Scheduled Tribes (STs) and other traditional forest-dwelling communities.
Grants Individual Forest Rights (IFR) and Community Forest Resource Rights (CFRR) titles.
Purpose: Ensure livelihood, residence, and resource access for forest-dependent communities.

RTI data shows thousands of forest rights titles missing from Chhattisgarh govt. records over the last 17 months.
State claim: Reductions due to “miscommunication” and reporting errors, not title withdrawal.

State Total (May 2025):
- 4.82 lakh IFR titles distributed across 30 districts.
- 4,396 CFRR titles distributed.
District-level Reductions:
- Bastar: IFR titles fell from 37,958 (Jan 2024) → 35,180 (May 2025).
- Rajnandgaon: CFRR titles dropped from 40 to 20 in one month (2024).
- Bijapur: CFRR titles fell from 299 (Mar 2024) → 297 (Apr 2024).
FRA Implementation Gaps:
- Not implemented in Raipur, Durg, Bemetara.
- Chhattisgarh accounts for 43% of India’s forest area under FRA titles (as of May 2025).
- Slow progress in 3 districts recently declared free of Naxalism.

FRA, 2006 has no provision for withdrawing titles once granted.
Any reduction in titles is considered an “anomaly” by researchers and experts.

Official stance:
- Errors in gram sabha → sub-divisional → district-level data compilation.
- Corrections done in progress reports to fix inflated figures.
Expert suspicion:
- Could indicate procedural lapses or irregularities in FRA implementation.