Gram Sabhas hold authority to prepare CFR management plans, says Centre

The power to prepare Community Forest Resource (CFR) management plans rests with villages through their Gram Sabhas and not with any department of either the Union or State governments, officials of the Tribal Affairs Ministry in New Delhi said on Friday (July 4, 2025). The role of governments is limited to assisting Gram Sabhas in this process, they added.

This clarification follows the withdrawal of an order by the Chhattisgarh Forest Department that had prohibited CFR management work across the State in areas where rights had been granted under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006. The order, issued by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests in May, had sparked State-wide protests from forest-dwelling communities and civil society groups.

The Forest Department had cited a 2024 joint communication from the Union Ministries of Tribal Affairs and Environment, under which the Tribal Affairs Ministry was to prepare “model” CFR management plans for circulation to States. Based on this, the Department claimed that no CFR management activity could proceed until these model plans were delivered.

However, Union government officials told The Hindu that “the joint communication was not supposed to halt CFR management work till the model plans are prepared”. State officials further explained that community-led forest resource management and conservation cannot have “one plan that fits all”, adding that each village will have to tailor their plans according to the nature, amount and geography of the forests in their respective areas. 

In their protest letters to the Chief Minister, Gram Sabhas alleged that the Forest Department was attempting to wrest control of CFR management from them – an authority they hold under the FRA and the CFR guidelines issued by the Tribal Affairs Ministry.

The earlier Forest Department order had also interrupted plans by the Tribal Development Department to empanel NGOs to support villages in drafting their CFR management plans. With Thursday’s withdrawal of the order, officials in Chhattisgarh confirmed that the process can now resume.

“We had asked for guidance from the Tribal Affairs Ministry on this and a formal response is expected any day now. It has also been learnt that the Union Ministry will soon be sharing its model plans, which will just be a broad framework,” a State official said.

Though the FRA was enacted in 2006 with the intent of involving forest-dependent communities in conservation and management, it was only in 2023 that the Tribal Affairs Ministry issued detailed guidelines that gave exclusive authority to Gram Sabhas for preparing and approving CFR plans. The Ministry clarified that any synchronisation required with forest department codes should occur after Gram Sabhas have finalised their plans.

To facilitate this process, the Union government in 2023 launched the Dharti Aba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyaan, a separate programme that enabled State governments to empanel NGOs to assist Gram Sabhas in preparing CFR management plans.