Agasthyamalai conservation case: SC directs temporary and non-resident silk cotton cultivators not eligible for protection under FRA Act

NEW DELHI The Supreme Court directed on Friday that individuals with temporary residence in the Agasthyamalai biosphere or those living entirely outside the forest boundaries cannot be classified as traditional forest dwellers merely for cultivating silk cotton within the forest.

“Persons falling in Category II and Category III, as classified in the additional affidavit of September 6 filed by Department of Revenue, State of Tamil Nadu, shall be excluded from consideration as forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers for the purposes of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 or FRA Act,” a Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta directed.

According to Tamil Nadu’s own affidavit, 232 persons are cultivating the forest area with temporary residence while 2,767 persons who occupy 2,867.70 hectares land are residing outside the forest boundary and are managing silk cotton cultivation.