Forest rights in India under attack

Written on 04 July 2019. Posted in India

According to reliable information received by IWGIA and Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP), the forest rights of indigenous peoples’ and forest dwelling communities in India as secured in the Forest Rights Act (2006) are under attack from at least three angles simultaneously.

In the first 6 months of 2019 alone, we have seen the forest rights of indigenous peoples in India under attack by:

1. a February 2019 Supreme Court order calling for the eviction of more than a million families;
2. a new discriminatory forest policy being drafted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), Government of India; and
3. plans to revise the current Indian Forest Act (1927) without the inclusion and consultation of indigenous and forest dwelling communities themselves.

The attacks are of great concern to IWGIA and AIPP, and in the recognition that we are not able to reverse the attacks on our own, we call on diplomatic missions, the UN, INGOs, national and international human rights activists and other relevant stakeholders, to utilise any diplomatic channels and opportunities to urge the Central Government of India to reverse these decisions that will adversely affect millions of indigenous people and traditional forest dwellers.

>> Read the 3 September 2019 joint statement of Indigenous Peoples Organisation in northeast India on the proposed Indian Forest Amendment Act 1927 here