More than a third of FRA claims have been rejected and community rights remain under-recognised. Examine the implementation gaps and suggest reforms.

The Forest Rights Act, 2006 recognises the existing rights of forest dwellers to correct a "historical injustice". By 31 May 2025, only about 49% of 51.2 lakh claims had become titles. About 36% (18.62 lakh) were rejected and 7.5 lakh were still pending [2]. The gaps lie mainly in how the Act is implemented, not in the law itself.

Implementation Gaps

• Evidence and process: forest dwellers rarely hold written records. Rule 12A treats satellite imagery as only supplementary evidence [4]. Over-reliance on it and on paperwork still drives rejections.
• Opaque rejections: claimants are often not given written reasons, which weakens their right to appeal and keeps wrongful rejections unreviewed.
• Neglect of community rights: about 95% of titles are individual titles (23.9 lakh against 1.22 lakh community titles) [1]. Telangana has granted only 721 community titles against 2.30 lakh individual ones [3].
• Pending backlog: Telangana alone has 3.29 lakh claims pending [3].
• Data deficit: MoTA does not centrally maintain data on how many villages could claim rights, so coverage cannot be measured [1].
• Support after the title: Rule 16 requires states to give title holders land-development and livelihood schemes [4]. Yet DAJGUA's farm component targets only about 2 lakh patta holders [5].

Reforms

• Reasoned orders and review: SDLCs and DLCs should issue written reasons for every rejection. Claims rejected only for "lack of evidence" should be reviewed, accepting the elders' statements and physical evidence listed in Rule 13 [4].
• Community rights in mission mode: use the 17 State and 414 District FRA Cells under DAJGUA to help Gram Sabhas file community and CFR claims [5].
• Time-bound disposal: set statutory timelines and publish a public dashboard of pending claims in backlog states [3].
• National baseline: map villages that could claim rights, so recognition gaps become visible [1].
• Convergence: extend farm, irrigation and credit support to all title holders through DAJGUA's reach of 63,843 villages [6].

Rejections, neglect of community claims and weak support after the title all come from a process that relies on paperwork rather than on Gram Sabhas. Reasoned decisions, Gram Sabha-led community claims and convergence can make the FRA the instrument of tribal dignity and livelihood security it was meant to be, in line with Article 46 and SDG 1 and 15.