RTI reveals 82% of tribal rights entitlement cases are quashed

Under the 2006 Forest Rights Act, providing land rights to forest-dwelling communities of the country, only 15 lakh complainants out of the 39,56,262 cases filed; were given the legal recognition to their property.

Responding to an RTI query, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs stated that 39,56,262 complaints were filed under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 till November last year.

15,51,826 complainants were provided with the entitlement to their lands and other resources. Around 32,67,888 complaints or 82.6% of the cases registered under the act were disposed off, they said.

Providing information about the states' response to complaints under the act, the ministry said that Andhra Pradesh provided entitlement to 1,69,370 complaints out of 4,11,012 cases filed.

Bihar delivered verdict on 28 out of 2,930 cases and Chhattisgarh reported 97.1% redressal by acting upon 3,36,590 out of 8,17,809 complaints.

72,418 out of 1,90,051 complaints were redressed by Gujarat; 15,296 out of 42,003 by Jharkhand; 1,96,969 out of 5,92,221 by Madhya Pradesh; 1,45,752 out of 3,49,543 by Maharashtra; 3,42,818 out of 6,08, 476 by Odisha; 18,488 out of 93,635 by Uttar Pradesh and 33,838 out of 40,309 by West Bengal, they said.

Out of the 2,58,780 cases registered in Karnataka, 1,73,082 complaints were cancelled and 7,427 entitlements were provided, the ministry added.