The forest rights group is asking the tribal affairs ministry to withdraw the stand with the consent of the Gram Sabha

Image is for representational purposes only. | Photo credit: libin jose

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

The National Platform of Adivasi and Forest Dwellers’ Organizations said the ministry “cannot simply wash its hands of its responsibility”, calling the ministry’s position “factually and legally untenable” which “reeks of dereliction of duty”.

“It is shocking that the Department of Tribal Affairs has made such a huge factual error which could have been avoided by simply reading the text of the Act,” the CSD said.

The CSD’s statement comes amid criticism of the ministry’s communication to the power ministry, which is currently under discussion over how the requirement of 100% Gram Sabha approval for forest land diversion has become a “critical bottleneck” delaying major government projects, as first reported by The Hindu. This observation was made by a parliamentary committee based on inputs from the NHPC of the Ministry of Power.

The CSD said, “It is a disinformation campaign that the requirement of Gram Sabha approval is a critical factor in delaying projects. On the contrary, around 3,05,945.38 hectares of forest land has been approved for non-forest use under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, without being fully FRA compliant between 2008-09 and 2022-2022.”

A day earlier, former environment minister and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had also criticized the tribal affairs ministry’s stand as a “shocking stance” that was against its own directives, communications, instructions and set procedure under the law as it stands today, especially after Supreme Court judgments like the one in the Niyamgiri case.

The central depository echoed the criticism, claiming the ministry was taking this stance “to appease the interests of developers, contractors and large corporations”.

The civil society organization further said that the Gram Sabha consent requirement has been a settled legal position for almost two decades, adding that attempts to “reverse it through this backdoor method smacks of cowardice and anti-people, anti-democratic and anti-constitutional motivations”.

The CSD further said that while the Parliamentary Committee and the NHPC had only suggested lowering the 100% Gram Sabha approval threshold, the Tribal Affairs Ministry had decided to “go through” and completely “delete the Gram Sabha approval requirement from the law as a whole”.

“Currently, the Forest Rights Act is being grossly violated across the country – the NDA government and state governments are destroying forests, curtailing forest rights and threatening the livelihood of forest dwellers at an alarming rate by diverting land for big projects. This is just the latest blow by the NDA government to sabotage this historic law,” the CSD said.

Published – 9 Sep 2026 23:06 IST