The Union Government is developing a national web portal to try and take the entire process of forest rights recognition and management online, senior officials told The Hindu on Friday (December 19, 2025).
According to a presentation prepared by the Tribal Affairs Ministry, this new portal is proposed to act as a single window for all Forest Rights Act (FRA) processes, which include filing and processing of claims (from the Gram Sabhas’ Forest Rights Committee to State-Level Monitoring Committees), issuing digital title deeds, storing legacy data on titles granted, and mapping potential forest areas over which FRA rights could be claimed in the future in the form of an FRA Atlas.
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The Ministry’s pitch came at a national consultative workshop organised by the National Tribal Research Institute in New Delhi on Friday (December 19, 2025) on the challenges in implementing the 2006 Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, popularly known as the Forest Rights Act or FRA, meant to recognise generationally held and exercised right of STs and other forest dwellers on forest land across the country. The law recognises various rights of forest dwellers on these lands, such as individual, community, the right to use resources, habitation, etc.
