Why in the news?

  • The Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs has stated that relocating forest-dwelling communities from tiger reserves should be undertaken only as an exceptional, voluntary, and scientifically justified measure.

National Framework for Community-Centred Conservation and Relocation (NFCCR)

  • What is it?:
    • The NFCCR is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) and the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEFCC) aimed at standardising the process of relocation of communities from critical conservation areas in India. 
    • It addresses the long-standing tension between the biodiversity- wildlife-conservation imperatives (e.g., in tiger reserves) and rights/ livelihoods of forest-dwelling/tribal communities.
  • Key Features:
    • Voluntary relocation only: The framework underscores that relocation should happen only with the free, prior and informed consent of the community, rather than coercively.
    • Justification & scientific basis: It mandates that relocation must be scientifically justified, for example, where habitat viability is threatened, or there is irreconcilable human-wildlife conflict or degradation.
    • Rights protection: The NFCCR affirms that rights under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA) must not be adversely impacted; communities with recognised Individual or Community Forest Rights (IFR/CFR) cannot be arbitrarily displaced.
    • Procedural standardisation: The framework proposes standard protocols for relocation: timelines, accountability of agencies, post-relocation tracking, monitoring and audit.
    • Database & transparency: It envisages a national database to record relocation cases, compensation and rehabilitation status, to ensure transparency and allow audits.
  • Significance for India:
    • India has many protected/wildlife-rich zones (e.g., tiger reserves under Project Tiger) where villages and forest-dwelling communities reside inside or adjacent to core habitats. 
    • It helps align conservation policy with community rights (especially tribal/forest dwellers) and with frameworks such as the FRA, thus reducing legal/ethical conflict around relocation.
    • From a strategic/geopolitical perspective, this framework supports more sustainable human–wildlife/co-existence models, reducing conflict, improving habitat integrity and potentially strengthening India’s conservation diplomacy (for instance under biodiversity conventions).
    • For your orientation (defence/geography/etc): relocation from core zones may affect land-use/land-cover patterns, social geography of fringe communities, forest-cover change, and thereby ecosystem services and human security in buffer landscapes.
  • Challenges:
    • Implementation gaps such as vague explanations of procedures and roles of different bodies such as the Gram Sabhas and Tribal bodies.
    • Ensuring that consent is free, prior and informed in many tribal/forest-dependent contexts remains challenging.
    • Challenges associated with post-relocation rehabilitation such as sustainable livelihoods and access to services.
    • Balance between conservation & rights
    • Data & monitoring Issues like data efficiency and transparency.
    • Issues related to Inter-ministerial coordination between MoTA and MoEFCC.