ABSTRACT
Tribals depend on the environment not merely for sustenance but also to protect their very identity and cultures which in this modernizing era seems rapidly moving towards adulteration. In the Indian context, in reality, very less has been achieved, with the Forest Act of 1878 being remembered as the denial of basic land rights to tribals by the state. The Act led to the mass conversion of tribal-owned forest lands into government properties without the acknowledgement of their rights, and, in contrast, the Indian Forest Act, 1927 did provide for the preservation of these ‘rights’. The enactment of the Forest Rights Act of 2006 offers an outlook on the denial of tribal rights and the process of remedying this wrong as its objective. This research aims to highlight the forest rights issues of the tribals and the impediment in implementation of legal remedies based on relevant cases and the Forest Rights Act of India. The research also focuses on the issue of tribal land ownership based on intergenerational rights against the phenomenon of forest expansions mainly undertaken for the uplift of wildlife and forest cover in India. The methods applied are a critical study of case laws particularly reflecting the grey area of implementation fault lines within the governmental machinery. The findings of the research provide implications for remedying lacunas in the enforcement of existing laws. The findings also indicate that the Forest Rights Act 2006 is able to preserve the competing interest of both Indigenous peoples’ rights to forest and the preservation of wildlife and ecology in Indian Forests. The findings in the research particularly outline the role of decentralized decision making by indigenous forest communities as a vital Indian case study with the potential for a replication on a supranational stage for the motive of preserving both the ecology and cultural rights of forest-dwelling communities.
