Implementation of Forest Rights Act, 2006

2025-07-24 Information

Replying to the question of Shri Benny Behanan and Shri K Radhakrishnan the Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Shri Jual Oram today laid a statement in Lok Sabha stating that the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, being the Nodal Ministry for administering the legislative matters of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 and Rules made thereunder, by exercising power under Section 12 of the Act, has been issuing directions and guidelines from time to time on various aspects to ensure proper implementation of the Act. As per FRA and rules made thereunder, respective State Governments/ UT Administrations are responsible for implementation of various provisions of the FR Act and are being implemented in 20 States and 1 UT.

Ministry of Tribal Affairs seeks a Monthly Progress Report from the States/UTs, as per the latest information reported by States and collated under MPR till 31st May, 2025, a total of 25,11,375 titles have been recognised, comprising 23,89,670 individual and 1,21,705 community titles over the extent of 2,32,73,947.39 acres of forest land. The state wise details are enclosed at Annexure I.

The details of allocation and expenditure for TSP by States/UTs, out of their own funds, are available at https://statetsp.tribal.gov.in Monitoring of TSP is done based on the State TSP Guidelines issued by the Planning Commission in 2014.

As informed by Ministry of Rural Development, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) is a demand – driven wage employment Scheme. It provides for the enhancement of livelihood security of the households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. It also mandates an extra 50 days of wage employment for Scheduled Tribe households in forest areas and provides for an additional 50 days of wage employment in drought or natural calamity-affected rural areas. State Governments may allocate additional days of employment beyond the guaranteed period using their funds. Implementation of the scheme is the responsibility of the State and several provisions for proper implementation have been provided in the Mahatma Gandhi NREGS.

Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) monitors the progress of vacancies in posts reserved for Scheduled Tribes candidates in the Union Government. As informed by DoPT, “Occurrence and filling of vacancies, along with backlog reserved vacancies, is a continuous process. Instructions have been issued to all Ministries/Departments of the Central Government to constitute an In-House Committee for identification of backlog reserved vacancies, to study the root cause of such vacancies, to initiate measures to remove the factors causing such vacancies and to fill them up through Special Recruitment Drives. The details of vacancies are maintained by the respective Ministry/ Department. Ministries/Departments of the Central Government have been directed, from time to time, to fill up the vacant posts in a time bound manner. Each Ministry/Department of the Central Government is required to designate an officer of the rank of Deputy Secretary and above, as Liaison Officer, to ensure due compliance of the orders and instructions pertaining to reservation. Further, each Ministry/Department is required to set up a Special Reservation Cell under the direct control of the Liaison Officer to assist her/him in discharge of duties. However, it is informed that as per the data furnished by the Ministries/ Departments as on 1.1.2025, more than 4.65 lakh backlog vacancies have been filled since 2016, including more than 1.15 lakh ST vacancies. Further, the representation of ST in the total employee strength reported by Ministries/ Departments to DoPT is 8.8%.”

In addition to the above, the Department of Public Enterprises has been informed that- “As per information available in Public Enterprises Survey 2023-24 (as on 31.3.2024), out of the 8.12 lakh total employees in operating Central Public Sector Enterprises, 0.88 lakh (10.85%) were from Scheduled Tribes”.

The number of tribal students benefited from pre-matric and post-matric scholarship schemes during the last 3 years is enclosed at Annexure-II.

Annexure-I

State wise details of claims received, titles distributed and the extent of forest land for which titles distributed (individual and community), as on 31.05.2025, is indicated below:

S. No.

States/ UT

No. of Titles Distributed

Extent of Forest land for which titles distributed (in acres)

Individual

Community

Total

Individual

Community

Total

Andhra Pradesh

226,651

1,822

228,473

454,706

526,454

981,160.00

Assam

57,325

1,477

58,802

NA/NR

Bihar

191

53.03

0.00

Chhattisgarh

481,432

52,636

534,068

949,770.89

9,102,957.49

10,052,728.38

Goa

856

871

1,506.45

18.66

1,525.11

Gujarat

98,732

4,792

103,524

168,448.83

1,240,680.15

1,409,128.99

Himachal Pradesh

662

146

808

126.65

62,677.24

62,803.89

Jharkhand

59,866

2,104

61,970

153,395.86

103,758.97

257,154.83

Karnataka

14,981

1,345

16,326

20,077.30

36,340.52

56,417.82

Kerala

29,422

282

29,704

38,810.58

788,651.25

827,461.83

Madhya Pradesh

266,901

27,976

294,877

903,533.06

1,463,614.46

2,367,147.52

Maharashtra

199,667

8,668

208,335

461,491.25

3,371,497.43

3,832,988.68

Odisha

462,067

8,832

470,899

674,775.33

743,193.39

1,417,968.72

Rajasthan

49,215

2,551

51,766

70,387.18

239,763.95

310,151.13

Tamil Nadu

15,442

1,066

16,508

22,104.80

60,468.77

82,573.57

Telangana

230,735

721

231,456

669,689.14

457,663.17

1,127,352.32

Tripura

127,931

101

128,032

465,192.88

552.40

465,745.28

Uttar Pradesh

22,537

893

23,430

NA/NR

Uttarakhand

184

185

0.00

West Bengal

44,444

686

45,130

21,014.27

572.03

21,586.29

Jammu & Kashmir

429

5,591

6,020

NA/NR

TOTAL

2,389,670

121,705

2,511,375

5075083.51

18198863.89

23273947.39

NA/NR-Related figure is either not available or not reported.

Annexure -II

Details of Beneficiaries to State Governments/UT Administrations thereof under the Scheme of Post-Matric Scholarship for ST students

Sl.No.

Name of the State/UT

A.Y. 2022-23

A.Y. 2023-24

A.Y. 2024-25

A.& N. Islands

386

193

311

Andhra Pradesh

129032

79780

67888

Arunachal Pradesh

46330

42417

45125

Assam

62140

58774

77350

Bihar

3768

1444

3428

Chhattisgarh

34184

40552

34022

DNH DD

2208

1053

1627

Goa

4439

3274

3163

Gujarat

262538

226456

233161

Himachal Pradesh

4303

4390

4937

Jammu & Kashmir

10430

7319

15309

Jharkhand

147633

148676

65104

Karnataka

131968

123707

125823

Kerala

17652

12721

13072

Ladakh

8619

9413

8969

Madhya Pradesh

391317

353486

326410

Maharashtra

106817

130359

33432

Manipur

42572

33542

32275

Meghalaya

61360

76755

73902

Mizoram

38784

31685

28471

Nagaland

40638

42485

41793

Odisha

204172

213957

230366

Puducherry

Rajasthan

236628

168516

Sikkim

2650

1849

2411

Tamil Nadu

23529

25216

28273

Telangana

114911

131505

131032

Tripura

37380

33678

33506

Uttar Pradesh

9655

9676

10427

Uttarakhand

3534

3972

4766

West Bengal

63208

37760

29528

Total

2242803

2054621

1705891

*- beneficiary data not reported by State/UT

Details of Beneficiaries to State Governments/UT Administrations thereof under the Scheme of Pre-Matric Scholarship for ST students

Sl.No.

Name of the State/UT

A.Y. 2022-23

A.Y. 2023-24

A.Y. 2024-25

Andaman & Nicobar

260

173

281

Andhra Pradesh

40465

Arunachal Pradesh

5178

2852

2831

Assam

5688

4353

8075

Bihar

26450

8451

15139

Chhattisgarh

28642

44837

27171

DNH & DD

2017

1273

1162

Goa

2108

1670

1698

Gujarat

157553

121083

124886

Himachal Pradesh

2479

2616

3260

Jammu & Kashmir

4689

2548

8371

Jharkhand

129269

114519

129142

Karnataka

98705

97191

104211

Kerala

7604

7323

10312

Ladakh

760

2228

2029

Madhya Pradesh

255944

259997

212347

Manipur

1836

3470

3916

Meghalaya

1588

5590

6149

Mizoram

10312

8911

8807

Nagaland

Odisha

79252

106691

122029

Puducherry

Rajasthan

73816

76272

57037

Sikkim

377

Tamil Nadu

15325

17557

19178

Telangana

9255

2460

Tripura

15017

11601

12597

Uttar Pradesh

1579

2329

3211

Uttarakhand

1464

902

West Bengal

23979

21789

24333

Total

1001304

928759

908563

*- beneficiary data not reported by State/UT