-Hindustan Times The claims are by tribal or pastoral communities seeking community rights over forest land they have inhabited for generations. Out of 4.224 million claims received, only 1.894 million titles have been distributed, 1.939 million have been rejected and a little less than 400,000 are still being assessed. One out of every two claims made since 2007 by forest dwellers under the Forest Rights Act has been rejected, data from...

-The Indian Express According to the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Rules 2016, the district collector needs to complete the process of vesting of forest rights under the FRA and obtain written consent of the affected gram sabhas before any project proposal reaches the forest department for consideration. New Delhi: A day before it moved the Supreme Court seeking a stay and modification of its February 13 order directing states to evict over...

-The Indian Express As activists on both sides argue their case on the SC order on eviction of encroachers whose claims have been rejected under the FRA, an explanation of key issues: from dwindling forest cover to bogus claims. On February 28, the Supreme Court put on hold its February 13 order directing states to evict tribals and other forest-dwellers whose claims over encroached forest land had been rejected under the...

-The Hindu Both human rights and wildlife rights groups have not used the Forest Rights Act as a conservation tool On February 13, the Supreme Court ordered the eviction of more than 10 lakh Adivasis and other forest dwellers from forestland across 17 States. The petitioners, mainly wildlife NGOs, had demanded that State governments evict those forest dwellers whose claims over traditional forestland under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers...

-Business Standard Say petition against Forest Rights Act does not help wildlife conservation and should be withdrawn More than 30 of India’s top ecologists, scientists and wildlife conservationists and have demanded that the petitioners withdraw their case against the Forest Rights Act and the government ensure the February 13 order of the Supreme Court for eviction of about 1.89 million tribal and forest-dwelling families be withdrawn. They have called the Supreme Court order...