* Chhattisgarh has a strong mineral base, forests and a large tribal population. As a result there are many conflicts over land use and access to natural resources.
* The Forest Rights Act 2006 has given legal space for tribal communities to access their resources. Chhattisgarh has achieved good numbers in the implementation of individual and forest rights.
* However, there are problems in the qualitative implementation of the rights and these need to be addressed.
* On Gandhi Jayanti, Mongabay-India looks at the status of implementation of indigenous people’s rights in Chhattisgarh.
Dalsai Kunjam a Gond tribal from Junwani village in Dhamtari district of Chhattisgarh is happy that he can grow crops on his agricultural land without any fear of relocation, now that he has an individual forest rights title under The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, over 1.5 acres of land. He says that his agricultural productivity has increased as now he has access to subsidised seeds and fertiliser support under the FRA-2006 convergence.
Kunjam lives in a forest village in which he along with others were rehabilitated from an erstwhile dam project in the early 1960s and earlier the inhabitants of the village were issued 15 years lease over forest land for agriculture. Post the FRA-2006 implementation, the forest village has been converted into a revenue village and has got benefit under various government schemes and is fully electrified. With the recognition of 398,181 individual titles under the FRA-2006 as of May 2018, Chhattisgarh is one of the leading states in the implementation of Forest Right Act, 2006.
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