The Union Tribal Affairs Ministry has mandated that the relocation of forest-dwelling communities from tiger reserves must be an “exceptional, voluntary, and evidence-based measure”. The Ministry’s new policy framework also spells out the mechanisms that allow communities to continue living in the forests and the procedures to be followed for obtaining their consent for relocation.
The policy calls for a National Framework for Community-Centred Conservation and Relocation (NFCCR), through which the Environment Ministry and Tribal Affairs Ministry can jointly set procedural standards, timelines, and accountability. It also suggests a National Database on Conservation-Community Interface (NDCCI) to record and track relocations, compensation, and status post-relocation. It recommends annual independent audits of relocation projects by empanelled agencies that assess compliance with the Forest Rights Act, the Wildlife Protection Act, and human rights standards.
Communities may choose to continue living in the “traditional forest habitats” while exercising their Individual Forest Rights or Community Forest Rights under the FRA, the policy says, emphasising that this must be an option for villages located within the reserves. In such cases, authorities must ensure the in-situ development of basic infrastructure, include Gram Sabha members in Tiger Conservation Foundations and Eco Development Committees, and “generate evidence on sustainable co-habitation models for wider replication”, the policy adds.
Against NTCA relocation directive
This brief, titled, “Reconciling Conservation and Community Rights: A Policy Framework for Relocation and Co-existence in India’s Tiger Reserves”, was sent last week to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change from the office of the Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
The Tribal Affairs Ministry noted that it has been receiving several representations from State governments and Gram Sabhas, flagging “serious concerns” about the non-implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006.
Last year, the National Tiger Conservation Authority’s directive to States asking them to prioritise relocation of villages in core areas of tiger reserves drew protests from several Gram Sabhas and forest rights activists. It also led to representations to the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, the Tribal Affairs Ministry, and the Environment Ministry, seeking the rollback of the directive. There were 591 villages and 64,801 families within the core areas of tiger reserves, according to the NTCA.
In August this year, the Environment Ministry told Parliament that since January 2022, a total of 5,166 families from 56 villages have been relocated from tiger reserves in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha, West Bengal, and Rajasthan. It claimed that all relocations from core/critical tiger habitats were voluntary in nature, as already required by the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 read with the Forest Rights Act, 2006.
Collaborative approach
In his letter to the Environment Ministry, Tribal Affairs Secretary Vibhu Nayar said there was an “urgent need to examine the substantive issues” with relocations and that a “collaborative approach” was needed to ensure that “relocation, if undertaken, be voluntary, scientifically justified, rights-compliant, and grounded in equity and dignity”.
This policy framework, he said, “strives to ensure that any relocation of forest-dwelling communities is grounded in constitutional, legal, ethical, and scientific principles”. He added that the issues discussed in the framework are of “critical importance”, calling for it to be circulated among State Forest and Tribal Welfare departments, to be passed on to the district levels as well.
“The State bears an affirmative constitutional duty to safeguard these rights [of forest-dwellers] and may not curtail them except upon demonstrable ecological necessity,” the policy says, adding that the completion of the FRA rights recognition process must be “verifiable at the Household and Gram Sabha levels”.
Free, informed, prior consent
Consent for relocation must be obtained before any administrative notification, and should be free of any inducement or pressures, which can be ensured by an independent empanelled civil society organisation, the policy brief says, adding that information regarding all aspects must be provided to villagers in “the local language and culturally appropriate formats”.
It also calls for a compliance and safeguards officer in every Tiger Reserve to oversee compliance with the provisions of both the Forest Rights Act and the Wildlife Protection Act. It suggests a three-tier grievance redressal mechanism (district – State – National), adding that the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act can be invoked in cases of unlawful dispossession or procedural lapses.
Published – October 28, 2025 09:03 pm IST
