Thousands of forest rights titles granted under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) have quietly disappeared from official records in Chhattisgarh over the last 17 months, according to government data accessed by The Hindu through the Right to Information Act. The missing titles span at least three districts, with the most dramatic change in Rajnandgaon where the number of community forest resource rights (CFRR) titles dropped from 40 to 20 in a single month last year.
Officials insist the numbers were never wrongfully reduced, blaming “miscommunication and error in reporting” between gram sabha, sub-divisional, and district officials. But FRA experts and activists say such drops are an “anomaly,” as the law has no provision to withdraw titles once granted, except in rare cases with gram sabha consent.
Sharp Declines in Bastar and Beyond
In Bastar district, individual forest rights (IFR) titles fell from 37,958 in January 2024 to 35,180 by May 2025 a loss of more than 2,700 titles. In Bijapur, CFRR titles slipped from 299 to 297 in just one month. Similar slowdowns or declines were recorded in Kabirdham, Gariyabandh, Balod, and Balrampur, all previously affected by Left Wing Extremism.
The FRA, enacted in 2006, recognises forest use rights of Scheduled Tribes and other forest-dwelling communities. Once issued, titles are inheritable but cannot be sold or transferred.
In three districts recently declared free of Naxalism Bastar, Dantewada, and Mohla-Manpur FRA implementation remains slow. Dantewada saw just 55 new IFR titles and no new CFRR titles over 17 months; Mohla-Manpur added two CFRR titles and no IFR titles. Kondagaon was the lone bright spot, with 1,273 new IFR and five CFRR titles.
Experts Flag Record-Keeping Problems
FRA researchers say poor record-keeping is a chronic problem in Chhattisgarh, with some gram sabhas even registered for rights without having applied. The Union Tribal Affairs Ministry has acknowledged the issue, launching its Dharti Aba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyaan in 2024 to set up over 300 FRA cells per state for digitising and verifying records.
As of May 2025, Chhattisgarh accounts for over 43% of India’s forest area under FRA titles but with unexplained disappearances in the data, the reliability of that figure now faces scrutiny.
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