Chhattisgarh Sees Sharp Drop in Forest Rights Titles, Officials Cite “Reporting Errors”
Over the past year and a half, thousands of forest rights titles in Chhattisgarh appear to have quietly vanished from official records, raising eyebrows among community rights activists and researchers. The missing records, spread across at least three districts, came to light through documents obtained via the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
State government data shows that as of May 2025, 4.82 lakh individual forest rights (IFR) titles and 4,396 community forest resource rights (CFRR) titles had been distributed across 30 districts. However, closer inspection of district-wise figures reveals unexplained reductions in several areas.
Take Bastar district, for example. In January 2024, the number of IFR titles stood at 37,958. By May 2025, this had dropped to 35,180 — a decline of more than 2,700 titles. Rajnandgaon district saw an even sharper proportional fall in CFRR titles, halving from 40 to 20 in a single month last year. In Bijapur, the number of CFRR titles decreased from 299 in March 2024 to 297 in April.
What makes these numbers unusual is that the Forest Rights Act (FRA) of 2006 has no provision for withdrawing titles once granted. The law recognises the rights of Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest-dwelling communities to live on, use, and manage forest land for their livelihoods. Once a title is issued — whether to an individual or a community — it is meant to be permanent.
Some researchers familiar with the FRA process have called the sudden drop in numbers an “anomaly” that warrants explanation.
Officials Point to “Miscommunication”
When asked about the discrepancies, senior state officials attributed them to misreporting rather than actual cancellation of rights. They explained that errors sometimes occur in collating information from different administrative levels — starting from gram sabhas, moving to sub-divisional committees, and finally to district records.
“It may be seen as a reporting error,” one official said, stressing that the corrections were part of an effort to ensure accuracy.
Interestingly, FRA is not implemented in Raipur, Durg, and Bemetara districts. This means that the recorded reductions are occurring in regions where the Act is actively in place.
According to central government figures, Chhattisgarh accounts for more than 43% of all forest areas across India where FRA titles have been granted — making it one of the most significant states in terms of recognising community and individual forest rights.
Uneven Implementation in Naxal-Free Districts
The data also reveals that in three districts recently declared “free of Naxalism” by the Union Home Ministry, FRA implementation has been relatively slow. While these areas were expected to see quicker progress in recognising rights, the figures suggest otherwise.
For now, the official stance is that the reductions are purely the result of data corrections. But for communities on the ground, the disappearance of titles from records — even on paper — raises concerns about security of tenure and the long-term protection of their rights under the law.
No comments:
Post a Comment