Land Rights to Scheduled Tribes (STs) & Giri Vikasam
Under the ‘Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act’ in 2006, the Government has granted the Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers the right to hold and live in the forest land and the rights to “protect, regenerate or conserve or manage any community forest resource that they have been traditionally protecting and conserving for sustainable use”. As of January 2022, the Government has issued title certificates to 96,676 individuals involving 3,08,614 acres and 721 community titles involving 4,54,054 acres.
“GIRI VIKASAM” scheme is aimed to convert the uncultivable agricultural lands of small & marginal Scheduled tribe (ST) farmers into cultivable lands for the sustainable agriculture development. As of December 2021, An area of 18,228 acres of land belonging to 6,118 ST farmers has been converted to cultivable land with the cost of Rs 43.1 crore.
