-The Economic Times
The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Act (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, or the Forest Rights Act (FRA), is among India’s most important legislation since 2005, along with the Right to Information Act and the Right to Education Act.
FRA, which was passed in Parliament in December 2006 and which became operational in January 2008, recognises the rights of forest dwellers, including Scheduled Tribes and others, to use, protect and manage forest resources where they live.
It looks to right the wrongs of government policies in both colonial and independent India toward forest-dwelling communities, whose claims over their resources were repeatedly ignored.
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