No provision in Forest Rights Act to obtain gram sabha consent for projects, Tribal Affairs Ministry says
The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has stated that the Forest Rights Act of 2006 contains no provision requiring gram sabha consent for forest clearance. This clarification impacts how government projects are approved on forest land.
Why it matters
This interpretation creates a legal conflict between development projects and the rights of indigenous communities to manage their ancestral lands.
In deliberations with the Union Ministry of Power over government projects delayed due to the “critical bottleneck” of “100% gram sabha consent under the Forest Rights Act (FRA)” for forest clearance, the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs has said that the 2006 law has “no provision for obtaining consent of the gram sabha for forest clearance”, adding that “such matters” related to gram sabha consent “do not fall under the purview of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs”.
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