The Tribal Affairs Ministry must immediately withdraw its August 31 office memorandum that claimed there was “no provision” under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) to seek consent of Gram Sabhas for diverting forest land for non-forest purposes, the Campaign for Survival and Dignity (CSD) said in a statement on Wednesday (September 9, 2026).

The national platform of Adivasi and forest-dweller organisations said the Ministry “cannot simply wash its hands of its responsibility”, calling the Ministry’s position “factually and legally untenable”, which “smacks of dereliction of duty”.

“Shockingly, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs has made such a gargantuan factual blunder, something which could have been avoided simply by reading the text of the law,” said the CSD.

The CSD’s statement comes amid criticisms of the Ministry’s communication to the Power Ministry, with which it is currently in discussions about how the requirement of 100% Gram Sabha consent for diversion of forest land has become a “critical bottleneck” delaying large government projects, as first reported by The Hindu. This observation was made by a Parliamentary Committee with inputs from the Power Ministry’s NHPC.

The CSD said, “It is a misinformation campaign that the requirement of Gram Sabha consent is the critical factor in delaying projects. On the contrary, around 3,05,945.38 hectares of forest land have been approved for non-forest use under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, from 2008-09 to 2022-23 without fully complying with FRA.”  

A day earlier, former Environment Minister and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had also criticised the position of the Tribal Affairs Ministry as a “shocking stance” that went against its own directives, communications, guidelines, and the set procedure under law as it exists today, especially after Supreme Court judgements like the one in the Niyamgiri case.

The CSD echoed the criticism and alleged that the Ministry was taking this position “in order to appease the interests of project developers, contractors and big corporations”.

The civil society organisation went on to say that the Gram Sabha consent requirement had been the settled legal position for almost two decades now, adding that attempts to “reverse it through this backdoor method smack of cowardice and anti-people, anti-democratic and unconstitutional motivations”.

The CSD further said that even though the Parliamentary Committee and the NHPC had merely suggested reducing the 100% Gram Sabha consent threshold, the Tribal Affairs Ministry had chosen to “crawl” and completely “erase the requirement of Gram Sabha consent from the law in its entirety”.

“As it is, the Forest Rights Act is being grossly violated across the country—the NDA government and State governments have been destroying forests, curtailing forest rights and threatening the livelihoods of forest dwellers by diverting land for large projects at an alarming pace. This is only the latest blow by the NDA government to sabotage this historic law,” the CSD said.

J&K Cabinet Minister Javed Ahmed Rana, who holds the Forest, Ecology and Environment and Tribal Affairs portfolio, on Saturday (August 1, 2026) announced that the Tribal Affairs department would be the nodal agency to implement the Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006, and warned against the issuance of eviction notices to forest dwellers without following the set procedure.  

“No notices will be served by the J&K Forest Department to any member of forest dwellers, whether a Schedule Tribe or any other traditional forest dwellers living for decades. These dwellers will not be disturbed or evicted from the forest under occupation till the process of recognition and verification is complete,” said Mr. Rana.

The announcement comes months after the Lok Bhavan and the elected government were at loggerheads over the eviction drive in Jammu’s Sunjwan, Bathindi, Raika, and Sidhra areas in Jammu. The drive had triggered protests by BJP legislators, with the elected government accusing the Forest department of functioning under the directions of the Lok Bhavan.  

Mr. Rana said the Tribal department, and not the Forest department will be the nodal department for implementing the FRA in J&K.

“A three-member Project Monitoring Units has been established. No one will be evicted till a set procedure is followed. All the deputy commissioners will speed up the pending cases under the FRA,” he said. 

According to the 2011 Census, Jammu and Kashmir has a Scheduled Tribe population of 12.75 lakh, including 8.10 lakh in the Jammu division and 4.64 lakh in the Kashmir division.

The Government is pushing hard to implement the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA) and has expedited the process of receiving, verifying and settling claims through the statutory three-tier mechanism.

An official circular said the Gram Sabha is the statutory authority responsible for initiating the process of determining the nature and extent of individual and community forest rights under the provisions of Section 6 of the Act.

“The Gram Sabha is mandated to receive, scrutinize and verify claims, prepare maps of the recommended claims and forward its recommendations to the Sub-Divisional Level Committee (SDLC) for further examination and decision,” an official spokesman said.

Separately, J&K Legislative Assembly Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather held a public outreach camp at Kanidajan in the Charar-i-Sharief Constituency. An official spokesman said a major concern was raised by the villagers pertaining to the alleged harassment caused by the eviction notices issued by the Forest Department and the obstruction of agricultural activities on lands, “which have been under their possession and cultivation for generations”.

“No one would be allowed to act in violation of the provisions of the FRA. The rights of all eligible beneficiaries under the Act would be protected in letter and spirit adding that no undue harassment of villagers would be tolerated,” said Mr. Rather.

The Speaker cautioned that no individual should attempt to misuse the Act as a pretext for fresh encroachments on forest land or government property. “The law must be implemented fairly and transparently while safeguarding the rights of genuine beneficiaries,” he added.