Centre plans 'tribal atlas' of remote villages

In a major push to give land rights to tribals living in remote areas, the Centre has asked the states to prepare a “tribal atlas” mapping all tribal-dominated villages till core forest areas.

The atlas will help develop a demographic and cultural profile of each tribal village. It will enable the government to identify where the tribals have still not got land rights. The tribal affairs ministry has asked 21 states and union territories, which are implementing Forest Rights Act 2006, to initiate a detailed exercise at the ground level. A senior ministry official, who did not wish to be identified, told ET, “A tribal atlas of a state will help the state government and the Centre to clearly identify the areas where land right claims can be saturated.”

The exercise has been initiated because of the pendency of forest rights claims with the state governments. As per ministry data, land rights or pattas have been given in less than half the cases where claims have been received. As of February 1, land rights have been given to 48.95% of the claimants, while 36.43% of the claims have been rejected. About 14.62% of the claims are still pending with the states.


“The tribal atlas will help in addressing pendency. The district administration will know exactly where tribals in which village have not received pattas for their land and can be targeted for saturation,” the official said.

The first such tribal atlas was prepared by Odisha in 2018 – a model that the Centre now wants all states to implement. The states will use GIS (geographic information system) mapping for the exercise. “Most states have mapped revenue boundaries and forest areas. They will now integrate these maps and get demographic details about tribal population, number of tribal villages, which forest they reside near and till what extent are they going inside to collect minor forest produce or cultivate land,” said the official.

Once the tribal atlas is developed, the ministry will help the states in targeting the unsaturated villages for giving land rights. About 386 districts have been identified to set up two-member forest rights cells to assist in disposing of land rights claims. Each district will get about Rs 8.70 lakh to set up these cells. “This specialised manpower will handhold the district administration in how to address pendency,” said the official.

Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir will be developing a tribal atlas. So far, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh have launched their tribal atlas.