NEW DELHI: About 745,000 forest rights claims are pending across the states and union territories, according to data tabled by the ministry of tribal affairs in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. This includes both individual and community claims under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) of 2006.
Telangana has the highest number of pending claims, with around 329,000 unresolved claims. Other states with significant pending claims are Odisha, with 109,000 pending claims, Gujarat with 84,644 pending claims, and Maharashtra’s 28,190. Chhattisgarh has 13,495 unresolved claims while Jharkhand has 20,679 pending claims.
Responding to a question by BJP MP Jaggesh, minister of state for tribal affairs Durga Das Uikey said the ministry has asked states to expedite the processing of claims in a time-bound manner.
According to data provided by the minister, the total number of claims settled across all states and union territories stands at 2,503,453, including 2,385,334 individual titles and 118,119 community titles. Some states have made considerable progress in settling claims, such as Andhra Pradesh, which has distributed 228,473 titles, and Madhya Pradesh, with 294,877 titles issued.
The ministry has also asked states to create a “Tribal Atlas” to facilitate the identification of eligible villages, streamline the processing of claims, and improve transparency in the implementation of the FRA.
The ministry has also asked states to map potential forest areas and create an FRA Atlas to enable efficient identification of eligible villages, faster processing of all the pending claims, identification of implementation gaps, support for decision-making and improved transparency and accountability. As part of this initiative, states such as Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have already launched their FRA Atlas.