Indian Forest Rights Legislation: Significance of Recognizing the Legal Pluralism for Indigenous Peoples Rights
Abstract Indigenous people’s traditional customary claim over the forest land was not accepted by the formal legal mechanism in India for a long period of time. The underlying rationale for the claim is livelihood, religious, and cultural reasons. The indigenous people’s claims remained as informal norm, which were not accepted by the formal state legal system in India. Discriminating legal centralism was existing in the area of forest governance and policy till the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act was enacted in 2006. The Forest Rights Act, 2006 has brought a paradigm shift in the entire approach of law towards the indigenous people and acknowledged the rights of the indigenous people. This article makes an attempt to understand the significance of recognition of legal pluralistic norms through legislation.