Undoing Historical Injustice? Critical Reflections on India’s Forest Rights Act, 2006

It has been fifteen years since the passing of The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, popularly known as the Forest Rights Act (FRA), but the discussion around this Act does not seem to die down. Intended to regularise illegal land holdings in forests across India and remedy the situation of numerous forest dwellers who live in perpetual fear of being evicted from their land, the Act has been attributed with transformative possibilities. This article critically engages with the optimism associated with the Act by presenting a synoptic analysis of research conducted at various points and over the last two decades among tribes in Jharkhand, Maharashtra and south India. I argue that while the FRA admits to the historical injustice committed against tribal forest dwellers, it does not validate their experiences or delineate the institutional processes and practices responsible for their marginalisation. This stonewalling of longstanding issues, particularly between the forest department and forest dwellers, indicate posturing rather than an act of contrition for the historical injustice committed against forest dwellers.