SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir has so far been granted titles in only 6,020 out of 46,090 claims filed under the Forest Rights Act, with 39,924 claims rejected and 146 still pending, the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs told the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
The figures were provided by Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram in a statement answering a starred question by Rajkumar Roat. As per the annexure placed before Parliament, Jammu and Kashmir recorded 33,233 individual claims and 12,857 community claims — a total of 46,090 — of which 429 individual titles and 5,591 community titles (6,020 in all) have been distributed. Rejections total 32,727 individual and 7,197 community claims (39,924). That leaves 146 claims pending disposal, about 0.32 percent of the total filed in the Union territory. The titles-awarded rate stands at 13.06 percent while the rejection rate is 86.62 percent.
The Ministry reminded the House of the Act’s protective provision. Section 4(5) of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, states that no forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribe member or other traditional forest dweller shall be evicted from forest land under their occupation until the recognition and verification procedure is complete. The Ministry said no reports have been received from States or UTs reporting displacement of pending claimants. The National Tiger Conservation Authority also reported no displacements from core tiger habitat areas.
National context: across India, 5,157,332 claims had been filed by 31 October 2025 — comprising 4,944,101 individual and 213,231 community claims. Of these, 2,514,774 titles were distributed (48.76 percent), 1,873,738 claims were rejected (36.33 percent) and 768,820 remained pending (14.91 percent), the Ministry told Parliament.
The statement gave a district example from Madhya Pradesh to illustrate variation in outcomes. In Dewas district, 9,238 claims were received (8,762 individual and 476 community); 4,869 titles (52.70 percent) were distributed, 4,368 claims (47.28 percent) were rejected and one claim remained pending, the Ministry said.
The Ministry added that the FRA vests forest rights for habitation and self-cultivation and provides procedures for recognition, verification and, where necessary, resettlement. State-level Monitoring Committees and District-level Implementing Committees are responsible for overseeing the process locally, and the Ministry said it receives and collates information from State and UT administrations for consolidation at the national level.
