Section 3 — Forest rights of Forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other tradional forest dwellers.

3. Forest rights of Forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other tradional forest dwellers.–(1) For 

the purposes of this Act, the following rights, which secure individual or community tenure or both, shall 

be the forest rights of forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers on all forest 

lands, namely:– 

(a) right to hold and live in the forest land under the individual or common occupation for 

habitation or for self-cultivation for livelihood by a member or members of a forest dwelling 

Scheduled Tribe or other traditional forest dwellers; 

(b) community rights such as nistar, by whatever name called, including those used in erstwhile 

Princely States, Zamindari or such intermediary regimes; 

(c) right of ownership, access to collect, use, and dispose of minor forest produce which has been 

traditionally collected within or outside village boundaries; 

(d) other community rights of uses or entitlements such as fish and other products of water 

bodies, grazing (both settled or transhumant) and traditional seasonal resource access of nomadic or 

pastoralist communities; 

(e) rights including community tenures of habitat and habitation for primitive tribal groups and 

pre-agricultural communities; 

(f) rights in or over disputed lands under any nomenclature in any State where claims are 

disputed; 

(g) rights for conversion of Pattas or leases or grants issued by any local authority or any State 

Government on forest lands to titles; 

(h) rights of settlement and conversion of all forest villages, old habitation, unsurveyed villages 

and other villages in forests, whether recorded, notified or not into revenue villages; 

(i) right to protect, regenerate or conserve or manage any community forest resource which they 

have been traditionally protecting and conserving for sustainable use; 

(j) rights which are recognised under any State law or laws of any Autonomous District Council 

or Autonomous Regional Council or which are accepted as rights of tribals under any traditional or 

customary law of the concerned tribes of any State; 

(k) right of access to biodiversity and community right to intellectual property and traditional 

knowledge related to biodiversity and cultural diversity; 

(l) any other traditional right customarily enjoyed by the forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes or 

other traditional forest dwellers, as the case may be, which are not mentioned in clauses (a) to (k) but 

excluding the traditional right of hunting or trapping or extracting a part of the body of any species of 

wild animal; 

(m) right to in situ rehabilitation including alternative land in cases where the Scheduled Tribes 

and other traditional forest dwellers have been illegally evicted or displaced from forest land of any 

description without receiving their legal entitlement to rehabilitation prior to the 13th day of 

December, 2005. 

(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 (69 of 1980), the 

Central Government shall provide for diversion of forest land for the following facilities managed by the 

Government which involve felling of trees not exceeding seventy-five trees per hectare, nemely:– 

(a) schools; 

(b) dispensary or hospital; 

(c) anganwadis; 



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(d) fair price shops; 

(e) electric and telecommunication lines; 

(f) tanks and other minor water bodies; 

(g) drinking water supply and water pipelines; 

(h) water or rain water harvesting structures; 

(i) minor irrigation canals; 

(j) non-conventional source of energy; 

(k) skill upgradation or vocational training centres; 

(l) roads; and 

(m) community centres: 

Provided that such diversion of forest land shall be allowed only if,– 

(i) the forest land to be diverted for the purposes mentioned in this sub-section is less than 

one hectare in each case; and 

(ii) the clearance of such developmental projects shall be subject to the condition that the 

same is recommended by the Gram Sabha.  

CHAPTER III 

RECOGNITION, RESTORATION AND VESTING OF FOREST RIGHTS AND RELATED MATTERS