Replying to the un-starred questions of Shri Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka , the Union Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Shri Durgadas Uikey informed lok sabha today that the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, being the Nodal Ministry for administering the legislative matters of “Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Recognition of Forest Rights Act 2006” (in short FRA), has been issuing directions and guidelines from time to time on various aspects to ensure proper implementation of the Act. As per FRA and Rules made thereunder, the State Governments are responsible for implementation of various provisions of the Act and is being implemented in 20 States and 1 UT.

FRA provides safeguards against forced eviction. Section 4(5) of FRA provides that Save as otherwise provided, no member of a forest dwelling Scheduled Tribe or other traditional forest dwellers shall be evicted or removed from the forest land under his occupation till the recognition and verification procedure is complete. There is a provision of petition by aggrieved persons to SDLC and DLC [Section 6(2) and 6(4) of FRA]. Further, the State Level Monitoring Committee under the Chair of Chief Secretary is to meet at least once in three months to monitor the process of recognition, verification and vesting of forest rights, consider and address field level problems.

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs monitors the Monthly Progress Reports submitted by the States/UTs. As reported by States/UTs, cumulatively till 31st May 2025, a total of 51,23,104 claims have been filed at Gram Sabha Level, comprising 49,11,495 individual and 2,11,609 community claims. Out of which a total of 25,11,375 (49.02%) titles were distributed, comprising 23,89,670 individual and 1,21,705 community titles. And 18,62,056 (36.34%) claims have been rejected, comprising 18,09,017 individual and 53,039 community claims. State wise details of claims filed at Gram Sabha Level (Individual and Community), Title distributed and claims rejected are at Annexure. The details of number of claims (individual and community) filed at Gram Sabha Level under FRA and the total number of claims rejected since 2020, month wise and State/UT-wise are available at this Ministry’s website- on FRA- MPR- https://tribal.nic.in/FRA.aspx.

Ministry of Tribal Affairs has taken following steps to ensure that eligible tribal families receive individual and community titles and that their habitat and customary rights remain protected and prevent wrongful evictions and expedite settlement process:

MoTA has been issuing directions and guidelines from time to time on various aspects to ensure proper implementation of the Act. Further review meetings are regularly being held from time to time with the State Tribal Welfare Department and concerned authorities. DC/DMs have been advised to dispose of all pending FRA Claims in time.

Grievances /representations received in the Ministry regarding violation of FRA are forwarded to the State / UTs concerned, to ensure that legitimate claimants are not denied their forest rights.

MoTA has been providing financial support to the districts under 'DhartiAabaJanjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan' (DA-JGUA)’ for setting up dedicated FRA cells at the State and district/subdivision levels, for a period of two years to facilitate the settlement process for pending claims (both community and individual), ensure timely convening of Sub-Divisional Level Committees (SDLC), District Level Committees (DLC), and other related bodies. MoTA has also issued a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the Setting up of FRA Cells. The ministry is urging states to prepare an FRA Atlas to map the potential forest areas which can be considered under FRA and undertake capacity building of all stakeholders. Further, Ministry has been providing financial support to the State Tribal Welfare Department for development and maintenance of the state-specific FRA portal (which includes dedicated server, cost of software, hardware, security audit, digital mapping of land records and other operational costs) under DA JGUA.

Annexure

S. No.	States	No. of Claims received upto 31.05.2025			No. of Titles Distributed upto 31.05.2025			Claims Rejected upto 31.05.2025
		Individual	Community	Total	Individual	Community	Total	Individual	Community	Total
1	Andhra Pradesh	285,098	3,294	288,392	226,651	1,822	228,473	56940	1470	58410
2	Assam	148,965	6,046	155,011	57,325	1,477	58,802	NA/NR	NA/NR	NA/NR
3	Bihar	4,696	0	4,696	191	0	191	4496	0	4496
4	Chhattisgarh	890,220	57,259	947,479	481,432	52,636	534,068	403129	3658	406787
5	Goa	9,757	379	10,136	856	15	871	438	9	447
6	Gujarat	183,055	7,187	190,242	98,732	4,792	103,524	0	2331	2331
7	Himachal Pradesh	4,883	683	5,566	662	146	808	52	2	54
8	Jharkhand	107,032	3,724	110,756	59,866	2,104	61,970	26370	1737	28107
9	Karnataka	288,549	5,940	294,489	14,981	1,345	16,326	249060	4209	253269
10	Kerala	44,455	1,014	45,469	29,422	282	29,704	12539	296	12835
11	Madhya Pradesh	585,326	42,187	627,513	266,901	27,976	294,877	310216	12191	322407
12	Maharashtra	397,897	11,259	409,156	199,667	8,668	208,335	170487	2144	172631
13	Odisha	701,148	35,024	736,172	462,067	8,832	470,899	144104	532	144636
14	Rajasthan	113,162	5,213	118,375	49,215	2,551	51,766	63466	2455	65921
15	Tamil Nadu	33,119	1,548	34,667	15,442	1,066	16,508	12293	418	12711
16	Telangana	651,822	3,427	655,249	230,735	721	231,456	92744	1682	94426
17	Tripura	200,557	164	200,721	127,931	101	128,032	68785	63	68848
18	Uttar Pradesh	92,972	1,194	94,166	22,537	893	23,430	70435	301	70736
19	Uttarakhand	3,587	3,091	6,678	184	1	185	3403	3090	6493
20	West Bengal	131,962	10,119	142,081	44,444	686	45,130	87333	9254	96587
21	Jammu & Kashmir	33,233	12,857	46,090	429	5,591	6,020	32727	7197	39924
TOTAL		4,911,495	211,609	5,123,104	2,389,670	121,705	2,511,375	1809017	53039	1862056

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