The Supreme Court is set to soon revisit a case that could either uproot or improve the lives of over 16,30,000 families of forest dwellers – an estimated 78,00,000 people. This case involves false claims made by certain conservation non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to delegitimise India’s Forest Rights Act (FRA). https://thewire.in/rights/why-is-the-upcoming-sc-hearing-on-forest-rights-act-crucial-for-78-lakh-adivasis
Following a long movement by forest dwellers and advocacy groups calling for these historical injustices to be addressed, India finally passed the landmark FRA in 2006.
Under this Act, Adivasis and OTFDs can file claims for legal recognition of forest rights. This includes rights to inhabit, cultivate, and practice community-led forest management in areas they have lived in for generations. Gram Sabhas can inform claims-decisions, and also deny consent to environmentally destructive projects in forest areas. Since 2006, forest dwellers across the country have successfully acquired individual forest rights. In 2013, the Dongria Kondh Adivasis established the FRA’s importance as a conservation policy. They leveraged the Act to stop a bauxite mining project that would have destroyed their sacred lands in Odisha’s Niyamgiri forests.
In 2008, a small group of conservation NGOs associated with this eviction lobby filed a petition that initiated the current Supreme Court case. The petitioners falsely claimed that FRA was “unconstitutional”, “anti-conservation”, and beneficial to “encroachers”.
Their arguments appeared to have worked. In 2019, the Supreme Court passed an order that all forest dwellers whose FRA claims had been rejected – over 16.3 lakh families – could be evicted from their homes.
Now, as the case is reopened, the Supreme Court will make a pivotal decision. This decision will effectively signal the nature of India’s role in global environmental governance in the coming years.
21/12/2022
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