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This is a thread on what rejection of #forestrightsact claims means on the ground, based on our data documentation. Feel free to use it, get in touch for more info. 1/9
The Supreme Court, on February 13, 2019, had ordered the forced eviction of more than 1,000,000 tribal and other forest-dwelling households from forestlands. 2/9
The court has asked state governments to carry out evictions where claims of Forest Rights Act have been rejected. 3/9
However, forest communities and forest rights experts say that the process of rejection is biased and faulty. 4/9
Land Conflict Watch has so far recorded 126 cases of land conflicts across the country, of which the Forest Rights Act has been rejected in four cases and remains unsettled in 122 cases. 5/9
The cases are spread across 18 states-Kerala, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. 6/9
The non-settlement of the Forest Rights Act involves 6,91,874 hectares of land, 14,19,920 tribals as per our data so far. 7/9
Of the four cases of rejection, three cases directly relate to the rejection of individual forest rights of more than 750 people over at least 100 hectares of land in Gujarat and Chhattisgarh. 8/9
In the three cases, officials have said that the claims were rejected due to"insufficient evidence." In the fourth case, forest rights were first given and then cancelled by the Chhattisgarh government to clear a coal mining project in the Hasdeo Arand forests in the state. 9/9
