Evolution of Forest Policies and Implementation Status of FRA 2006 in India, with special reference to Jharkhand state

Abstract

Abstract The Forest Right (FRA) Act, 2006 has been endorsed in 2007 by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India. It also has been known as, ‘The Schedule Tribes and Other Tribal Forest Dwellers Act, 2006’. The majority of the tribal peoples are living in the forest and they are landless and deprived. Their deprived condition was identified by the outliner of the Indian Constitution; thus they have been given special protection by recognizing them as ‘Scheduled Tribes’ through the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950. Incidentally, India has the highest tribal population in the world. During the Colonial period, the vast tract of forest land was controlled by the British Government. That was the reason for the suffering of tribal people in every way, especially in respect of their means of livelihood. In the year 1864-65 first time forest act was legislated. The enactment of the 1878 act provided the Colonial government enormous power to declare any forest land as ‘government land’. After that several acts were enacted like the Madras Presidency Act 1882, National Forest Policy (NFP) 1894, and Land Acquisition Act of 1894. This act was in the favour of forest dwellers and tribal people in India. Because it has the power to forcibly acquire any land for the interest of ‘public purpose’. This act makes displaced forest dwellers on the pretext of development projects over the country. Finally, the Forest Right Act 2006 has been enacted to provide for those who are primarily residing in the forest or forest land or those who depend on it for acquiring their means of livelihood. The law recognizes three types of rights: land rights, the right to use and collect forest products, and the right to protect and conserve the forest. Though, the conservationist and forestry administrators opposed the act as it could damage the forest as well as wildlife. Here Jharkhand state has been considered as a case study to examine the implementation status of FRA and its post-implementation effect on forest cover. To achieve this objective basic statistics and univariate and multivariate regression analysis has been used. From that study it has been found that Jharkhand ranked behind its neighbouring states, there has been scope for implementation of FRA furthermore in number. Forest cover area has increased in the post-implementation period.