More than 90 forest rights groups from across India have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing the Union Environment Ministry of systematically undermining the Forest Rights Act (FRA).
They have also demanded that Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav publicly clarify his reported statement that the “FRA is responsible for forest degradation.”
In the letter dated June 28, the groups claimed that Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav made a blatant statement in a newspaper on June 5, attributing titles given under the FRA for forest degradation.
Forest rights activists say this narrative is not only misleading but also legally untenable and an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the FRA.
“He’s blaming tribals and forest dwellers for harming the forests,” one activist said, “while the ministry itself has allowed massive deforestation for industrial projects.”
The groups comprised Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan and Himdhara Environment Research and Action Collective of Himachal, among several others.
The groups pointed to official data: since 2008, over 3 lakh hectares of forest land have been cleared for roads, mines, dams and other non-forest uses. Most of these, they claim, were done without following the legal requirements of the FRA.
The Forest Rights Act, passed in 2006, was meant to correct the historical injustice faced by forest-dwelling communities, especially Adivasis. It gave them the right to live on and manage forest lands through village-level bodies like Gram Sabhas. The law also clearly states that no eviction can take place unless these rights are first recognised and settled.
But, according to the letter, the environment ministry has repeatedly bypassed this process. It accuses the ministry of giving incorrect or incomplete data on forest encroachments to both Parliament and the National Green Tribunal (NGT), while avoiding any reference to the FRA or its legal protections.
The groups highlighted a troubling order from the National Tiger Conservation Authority issued last year. On June 19, 2023, it directed the fast-tracked relocation of 64,801 families from core areas of tiger reserves — again, allegedly without proper application of FRA guidelines. Activists say this is not only illegal but puts thousands of families at risk of forced evictions and deepens economic insecurity for forest dwellers.
The letter also took issue with the India State of Forest Report 2023, which blamed FRA land titles for a drop in forest and tree cover. Environmental and tribal groups argue that this narrative conveniently ignores how large-scale development projects are a far bigger threat to forest ecosystems.
Recent changes to the Forest Conservation Act — now renamed Van Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan Adhiniyam, 1980 — have only added to the fear. Despite protests by constitutional bodies like the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST), scientists, and rights groups, the amended law was passed, giving the government more freedom to divert forest land.
In their letter, the forest rights groups demanded that Minister Yadav publicly withdraw his remarks linking FRA to deforestation. They also urged the ministry to notify the Supreme Court and NGT that no encroachment action can be taken until the FRA is fully implemented — as required by law.
PTI reached out to the environment ministry for comment, but no response had been received at the time of publication.
