Lok Sabha Question No. 3961 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-03-28
Subject: Forest Land Claims
Ministry: TRIBAL AFFAIRS
Asked by: Annasaheb Shankar Jolle, S. Muniswamy

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF TRIBAL AFFAIRS LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No- 3961

TO BE ANSWERED ON- 28/03/2022

## FOREST LAND CLAIMS

3961. SHRI ANNASAHEB SHANKAR JOLLE: SHRI S. MUNISWAMY :

Will the Minister of TRIBAL AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of pending cases of forest land claims in the state of Karnataka along with the reasons for being the State with highest pending of such cases; and
- (b) the details of the reasons that Government is not inclined to disposing/allotting the forest lands to the deserving mainly the tribal population of the State?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE FOR TRIBAL AFFAIRS SHRI BISHWESWAR TUDU )

- (a) &  (b): As  per  Forest  Rights  Act  2006  and  rules  made  thereunder,  the  responsibility  for implementation of the Act lies with State Governments/UT Administrations. As per the information received from State of Karnataka, the status of FRA applications received and disposed is as under.

| Category   |   No. of applications received |   No. of title deeds distributed |   Extent of land involved (in acres) |   No of applications rejected | No. of applications pending for disposal   |
|------------|--------------------------------|----------------------------------|--------------------------------------|-------------------------------|--------------------------------------------|
| 47708      |                          12674 |                         17590.8  |                              32869   |                          2165 | STs                                        |
| 240605     |                           1976 |                          2395.44 |                             173967   |                         64662 | OTFDs                                      |
| 5938       |                           1343 |                         36340.4  |                               3136   |                          1459 | Community                                  |
| Total      |                         294251 |                         15993    |                              56326.6 |                        209972 | 68286                                      |

Reasons for Pendency: The state of Karnatka has provided information of district wise pendency of FRA applications, which may be seen in the Annexure enclosed.  It shows that highest pendency is in Shivmonga and Uttarakanda as shown below.

-  46377  claims  are  pending  in  Shivmoga  District.  all  application  pending  in  Forest  Right Committee at village level.
-  Second  highest  pending  in  Uttarakannda  District,  16316  applications  are  pending  (8897 application pending in Forest Right Committee at  village level, 6855 applications in SDLC and 564 applications in DLC level)

## Pendency of claims filed by OTFDs:

The state has submitted that out of 68,286 cases, there is pendency of 64,662 cases pertaining to OTFDs and has stated following reasons for pendency.

i . Lack of documentary evidence in support of the claims. Mainly OTFD needs to prove antecedents of three generations or 75 years of ownership of forest land prior to 2005 or else they could not claim  their  rights  over  the  forest  land.  Around  95%  of  pending  case  belongs  to  OTFD  (64662 applications).

- ii. Claims filed for lands other than forest land or revenue land.
- iii. Multiple claims were filed for the same piece of land.
- iv. Multiple claims were filed from the same family.
- v.  The  term  of  office  of  DLC  &  SDLC  nominated  members  from  Taluk  &  District  Panchayath members has been completed and the elections have not taken place.

## Pendency of claims filed by ST:

It is submitted by the State Government that there are only 2165 pending cases out of total 47,708 cases filed by STs, showing that 94.46% of the applications of Tribal's are disposed, 5.54% of the applications are pending at different levels as shown below.

| Committees   |   No. of applications pending for disposal |
|--------------|--------------------------------------------|
| FRC          |                                       1199 |
| SDLC         |                                        950 |
| DLC          |                                         16 |
| Total        |                                       2165 |

The  state  has  submitted  that  a  detailed  review  meeting  under  the  Chairmanship  of  Social and   Backward class Welfare Minister was held on 22.02.2022 to examine the issues and problems related to FRA implementation and directions have been issued to Forest Department and Deputy Commissioners of concerned Districts for disposal of pending applications.

## District wise FRA Applications pending claims

| Sl. No.   | District        |   No. of applications received |   No. of title deeds distributed |   No of applications rejected |   No. of applications pending for disposal |
|-----------|-----------------|--------------------------------|----------------------------------|-------------------------------|--------------------------------------------|
| 1.        | Shivmogga       |                          97075 |                             2444 |                         48254 |                                      46377 |
| 2.        | Uttarakannada   |                          88409 |                             2855 |                         69238 |                                      16316 |
| 3.        | Ramanagara      |                           4582 |                              664 |                           642 |                                       3276 |
| 4.        | Mysore          |                           7275 |                              760 |                          5657 |                                        858 |
| 5.        | Gadaga          |                           2368 |                              619 |                          1387 |                                        362 |
| 6.        | Mandya          |                            314 |                                0 |                            66 |                                        248 |
| 7.        | Davanagere      |                          11034 |                              616 |                         10179 |                                        239 |
| 8.        | Koppal          |                            221 |                                4 |                             0 |                                        217 |
| 9.        | Chithradurga    |                           5093 |                              347 |                          4633 |                                        113 |
| 10.       | Bangalore Urban |                             87 |                                0 |                             0 |                                         87 |
| 11.       | Dharawada       |                           1418 |                               45 |                          1289 |                                         84 |
| 12.       | Ballary         |                           8199 |                                0 |                          8151 |                                         48 |
| 13.       | Haveri          |                           2829 |                               56 |                          2741 |                                         32 |
| 14.       | Tumkuru         |                           1434 |                                0 |                          1415 |                                         19 |
| 15.       | Bangalore Rural |                            528 |                              104 |                           418 |                                          6 |
| 16.       | Kodagu          |                           4081 |                             2098 |                          1981 |                                          2 |
| 17.       | Hassan          |                            492 |                                1 |                           489 |                                          2 |
| 18.       | Chikkamagalore  |                          21313 |                             1911 |                         19402 |                                          0 |
| 19.       | Chamarajanagara |                           2556 |                             2136 |                           420 |                                          0 |
| 20.       | Dakshinakannada |                           2466 |                              150 |                          2316 |                                          0 |
| 21.       | Udupi           |                           2142 |                              544 |                          1598 |                                          0 |
| 22.       | Belagavi        |                          17424 |                              551 |                         16873 |                                          0 |
| 23.       | Bagalakote      |                          12377 |                               88 |                         12289 |                                          0 |
| 24.       | Kalburgi        |                            508 |                                0 |                           508 |                                          0 |
| 25.       | Yadagiri        |                             26 |                                0 |                            26 |                                          0 |
|           | Total           |                         294251 |                            15993 |                        209972 |                                      68286 |