Title Deeds of Forest land to Tribals

The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, administered by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, does not envisage allotment of land to landless forest dwellers. The Act only seeks to recognize and vest the forest rights and occupation in forest land in forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers who have been residing in such forests for generations but whose rights could not be recorded.

As per the information collected till 31^st March, 2010, the status of implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan is as under:

State	No. of claims filed at Gram Sabha level	No. of titles distributed	No. of claims rejected	Total No. of claims disposed of	Percentage of claims disposed of upto31.3.2010
Maharashtra	3,20,362	8,200	425	8,625	2.69%
Gujarat	1,86,334	14,562	3,106	17,668	9.48%
Madhya Pradesh	3,99,209	85,184	2,42,863	3,28,047	82.17%
Rajasthan	60,353	21,838	30,175	52,013	86.18%

The above information shows that while the progress of implementation of the Act in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan is satisfactory, the States of Maharashtra and Gujarat are lagging behind.

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has been interacting with all the State Governments and Union Territory Administrations urging them to expedite implementation of the Act. Review meetings with the concerned officers of the State Governments and Union Territory Administrations are being held at regular intervals. The officers of the Ministry are also visiting the States to assess and guide the pace of implementation. The Ministry has recently advised and is pursuing all the State/ UT Governments to ensure completion of the work relating to vesting of forest rights at the earliest.