In Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State (MoS) for Tribal Affairs Shri Durgadas Uikey replying today to an un-starred question of Shri Sudama Prasad, Shri Amra Ram and Shri Kodikunnil Suresh informed that as per the provisions of “Scheduled Tribes And Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006” and Rules made thereunder, the State Governments are responsible for implementation of various provisions of the FRA, which is being implemented in 20 States and 1 UT. Ministry of Tribal Affairs monitors 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. A total of 18,62,056 (36.35%) claims have been rejected and 749,673 (14.63%) claims have been pending for disposal. The State wise details are at Annexure. However, , The State/UT wise details in the form of Monthly Progress Report for the last 5 years are available on this Ministry’s website - https://tribal.nic.in/FRA.aspx.

As per the directions of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in 2019 in Writ Petition 108/2008 to Chief Secretaries, all States have to complete the exercise of review of rejection of claims in a time-bound manner.  MoTA has asked states in various review meetings and through letters to inter alia have the meetings of the State Level Monitoring Committee (SLMC), to be chaired by Chief Secretary, at least once in three months, to monitor the implementation process of FRA and also to review the rejected claims as per extant procedures. MoTA has been exhorting all State Governments to abide by the provisions contained in FRA and ensure that all eligible claimants are provided the rights which are due to them.

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]. The grievances /representations received in the Ministry regarding violation of FRA (including eviction) are forwarded to the State / UTs concerned, to ensure that legitimate claimants are not denied their forest rights. Further to resolve field level issues with the Forest department, the MoTA has also issued two joint advisories with the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change dated 14.03.2024 and 06.07.2021.

As informed by the State Government of Kerala, a total of 29,422 beneficiaries have been given Individual Forest Rights to 38,794.10 Acres of land.

State Government of Kerala has informed that there are no legal disputes, administrative delays, or other bottlenecks related to the implementation of the Forest Rights Act in Kerala.

In order to accelerate benefit of various schemes to the forest right holders in full measure, Ministry under scheme of Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan (DA-JGUA), has inter alia taken several initiatives like Mapping of Potential Area under FRA, digitization of legacy data and claim process, support to Gram Sabha for preparation and execution of Community Forest Resource Rights (CFR) Management Plans and setting up dedicated FRA cells at the State and district/subdivision levels, for a period of two years to facilitate the settlement claim process under FRA. Under DA-JGUA, Ministry also supports FRA patta holders through convergence with several schemes of Department of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries where the respective scheme guidelines have been modified to limit the beneficiary contribution, to only 10 % wherever needed.

For the state Government of Kerala, MoTA has approved an amount of Rs. 129.89 Lakhs for setting up FRA Cells at State and at 12 districts level, as per the proposal received from Kerala. Further, State Government of Kerala has informed that District Collectors have been directed to convert the Scheduled Tribe areas which have been granted individual forest rights under the Forest Rights Act, into revenue villages. Livelihood schemes are being implemented through the schemes of the Central Government, PM-JANMAN and DA-JGUA, and other schemes of the State Government, in collaboration with other state departments or independently.

 

Annexure

 

Statement of Claims and Distribution of title deeds, Details of claims disposed of, rejected claims and pending claims under “The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006” reported by States/UT as on 31.05.2025:

 

S. No.	States	No. of Claims received upto 31.05.2025			No. of Titles Distributed upto 31.05.2025			No. of Claims Rejected	Total No. of Claims Disposed off	% Claims disposed off with respect to claims received	Total No. of Claims Pending
		Individual	Community	Total	Individual	Community	Total
1	Andhra Pradesh	285,098	3,294	288,392	226,651	1,822	228,473	58,410	286,883	99.48%	1,509
2	Assam	148,965	6,046	155,011	57,325	1,477	58,802	NA/NR	58,802	37.93%	96,209
3	Bihar	4,696	0	4,696	191	0	191	4,496	4,687	99.81%	9
4	Chhattisgarh	890,220	57,259	947,479	481,432	52,636	534,068	406,787	940,855	99.30%	6,624
5	Goa	9,757	379	10,136	856	15	871	447	1,318	13.00%	8,818
6	Gujarat	183,055	7,187	190,242	98,732	4,792	103,524	2,331	105,855	55.64%	84,387
7	Himachal Pradesh	4,883	683	5,566	662	146	808	54	862	15.49%	4,704
8	Jharkhand	107,032	3,724	110,756	59,866	2,104	61,970	28,107	90,077	81.33%	20,679
9	Karnataka	288,549	5,940	294,489	14,981	1,345	16,326	253,269	269,595	91.55%	24,894
10	Kerala	44,455	1,014	45,469	29,422	282	29,704	12,835	42,539	93.56%	2,930
11	Madhya Pradesh	585,326	42,187	627,513	266,901	27,976	294,877	322,407	617,284	98.37%	10,229
12	Maharashtra	397,897	11,259	409,156	199,667	8,668	208,335	172,631	380,966	93.11%	28,190
13	Odisha	701,148	35,024	736,172	462,067	8,832	470,899	144,636	615,535	83.61%	120,637
14	Rajasthan	113,162	5,213	118,375	49,215	2,551	51,766	65,921	117,687	99.42%	688
15	Tamil Nadu	33,119	1,548	34,667	15,442	1,066	16,508	12,711	29,219	84.28%	5,448
16	Telangana	651,822	3,427	655,249	230,735	721	231,456	94,426	325,882	49.73%	329,367
17	Tripura	200,557	164	200,721	127,931	101	128,032	68,848	196,880	98.09%	3,841
18	Uttar Pradesh	92,972	1,194	94,166	22,537	893	23,430	70,736	94,166	100.00%	0
19	Uttarakhand	3,587	3,091	6,678	184	1	185	6,493	6,678	100.00%	0
20	West Bengal	131,962	10,119	142,081	44,444	686	45,130	96,587	141,717	99.74%	364
21	Jammu & Kashmir	33,233	12,857	46,090	429	5,591	6,020	39,924	45,944	99.68%	146
TOTAL		4,911,495	211,609	5,123,104	2,389,670	121,705	2,511,375	1,862,056	4,373,431	85.37%	749,673

 

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RN

(Release ID: 2150804)