Overview

• The Tribal Affairs Ministry’s July 2 memo demands ground-verified scientific analysis from the Environment Ministry to substantiate ISFR 2023’s claim that FRA land titles contribute to forest degradation.
• It warns that attributing forest loss to FRA titles without rigorous evidence could foster administrative biases that undermine protections for longstanding forest-dwelling communities.
• More than 150 forest rights and civil society groups wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 26 accusing the Environment Ministry of deliberately subverting the Forest Rights Act.
• The Environment Ministry has rejected the allegations as a gross misunderstanding of facts, defended ministerial remarks as misrepresented, and emphasized its commitment to both conservation and tribal welfare.
• ISFR 2023 marks the first time a report has explicitly listed FRA titles as a factor in “negative” forest cover change, sharpening tensions between conservation goals and tribal land rights.