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The Ministry of Tribal Affairs told the Lok Sabha that relocation of villages from core or critical tiger habitats is voluntary under Section 38V(5) of the Wild Life (Protection) Act and Section 4(2) of the Forest Rights Act, 2006.
Financial assistance for voluntary relocation was raised from ₹10 lakh to ₹15 lakh per family in 2021, alongside settlement of rights, agricultural land, house construction and convergence with other schemes.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority has reiterated to all Tiger Range States that informed consent of the Gram Sabha and of the people concerned must be obtained before any rehabilitation.
Section 4(5) of the Forest Rights Act bars eviction of claimants from forest land in their occupation until the recognition and verification process is complete; a State Level Monitoring Committee and District Level Implementing Committee oversee relocation.
On separate questions, the Ministry stated it is the nodal ministry for notifying a community as a Scheduled Tribe under Article 342 while certificate issuance and verification rest with States, and that Sikkim's Limboo and Tamang assembly reservation issue is sub judice before the Supreme Court.
Governs the notification of critical tiger habitats and the conditions on which people may be resettled from them; the reply relies on it for the proposition that relocation is voluntary and requires prior informed consent.
The power under which the NTCA issued its Normative Standards for Tourism Activities and Project Tiger Guidelines, 2012, which set out the principle of voluntary relocation.
Sets the conditions under which rights may be modified or resettled in critical wildlife habitats, requiring among other things the free informed consent of the Gram Sabha.
Prohibits eviction or removal of a claimant from forest land under their occupation until the recognition and verification procedure is complete — the clause the Ministry says states must comply with.
Empowers the President, in consultation with the Governor for a state, to specify the tribes or tribal communities deemed to be Scheduled Tribes; Parliament may include or exclude communities by law. The Ministry of Tribal Affairs is nodal for this notification process, while certificate issuance is a state function.
Provides for reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in state Legislative Assemblies in proportion to their population — the provision underlying the Limboo and Tamang claim in Sikkim now before the Supreme Court.
Inquires into complaints regarding deprivation of the rights and safeguards of Scheduled Tribes — including land alienation, atrocities, forest rights claims and displacement from tiger reserves — and makes recommendations; it forwarded representations on relocation to the NTCA
Statutory authority for tiger conservation; issues relocation guidelines, reiterates the voluntariness requirement to Tiger Range States and receives reports from state monitoring committees
Its informed consent must be obtained before rehabilitation is undertaken; state governments conduct the consultation and due diligence
Monitor and implement the relocation process; both include representatives of the tribal welfare department, and they are the bodies mandated to report any involuntary relocation
The Wild Life (Protection) Act, as amended in 2006, creates critical tiger habitats — areas to be kept inviolate for tiger conservation — and sets the conditions for resettling people from them. The Forest Rights Act, passed the same year, recognises pre-existing rights of forest dwellers over land they occupy and produce they gather, and vests the Gram Sabha with the authority to determine those rights. The two were deliberately written to interlock: a critical tiger habitat cannot simply override recognised forest rights, because Section 4(2) of the FRA requires that rights first be recognised, that coexistence be shown to be impossible, that a resettlement package be prepared and that the Gram Sabha give free informed consent. Section 4(5) adds a floor beneath all of it — no claimant may be evicted before the recognition and verification process is even complete. This is why the reply cites both Acts in the same sentence, and why the assistance figure, raised from ₹10 lakh to ₹15 lakh per family in 2021, is described as part of a package rather than as compensation: it accompanies settlement of rights, agricultural land and house construction, not a purchase of them.
Simple Analogy: One law says the area must be kept free of habitation; the other says the people living there hold rights that must be recognised first. Relocation is lawful only where both conditions are satisfied — conservation need and consent — not where either alone is.
Launched in 1973 with nine reserves, Project Tiger acquired a statutory authority only in 2006 with the NTCA — the shift from an executive programme to a statutory mandate is a standard environment-governance question.
The first term comes from the Forest Rights Act and the second from the Wild Life (Protection) Act; they are separately defined and separately notified, and confusing them is a common error.
The amendment that split the joint SC-ST commission and created the NCST under Article 338A, alongside the NCSC under Article 338.
Rule 41(2)(xviii) of the Lok Sabha rules is the operative provision behind the familiar refusal to answer on pending cases — useful in answers on parliamentary procedure and separation of powers.
GS Paper 2 > Mechanisms, Laws, Institutions and Bodies Constituted for the Protection of Vulnerable Sections
General Awareness > Indian Polity and Environment
General Awareness > Current Affairs
Forest rights, tiger reserve relocation and constitutional bodies for STs are recurring Prelims and GS2 Mains material
Core areas of tiger reserves notified under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, to be kept inviolate for tiger conservation without affecting the rights of Scheduled Tribes and other forest dwellers.
The requirement under Section 4(2) of the Forest Rights Act that the village assembly agree, with full information, before rights are modified or resettlement takes place.
A matter under adjudication before a court; Rule 41(2)(xviii) of the Lok Sabha Rules bars parliamentary questions seeking information on such matters.
The constitutional provision establishing the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, inserted by the 89th Amendment in 2003.
The rehabilitation offer for families choosing to move out of a tiger reserve — ₹15 lakh per family since 2021, or settlement of rights with agricultural land and house construction.