Non-residents cultivating silk cotton in Agasthyamalai ineligible under FRA law

The Supreme Court on Friday directed that individuals having temporary residence in the Agasthyamalai Biosphere, or those residing entirely outside the forest boundary, cannot be categorised as traditional forest dwellers solely on the basis of cultivating silk cotton within the forest.

A bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta ordered that persons falling under Category II and Category III, as classified in the additional affidavit dated September 6 by the Revenue Department of the 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 the FRA Act.

According to the affidavit filed by the Tamil Nadu government, 232 individuals are cultivating in forest areas with temporary residence, while 2,767 individuals residing outside the forest boundary hold possession of 2,867.70 hectares of land and manage silk cotton cultivation.

This order follows a judgment in May 2026, which provided various directives for a time-bound process of eviction, rehabilitation, and ecological restoration in forest areas. The Court had ordered the preparation of a section-wise eviction plan, removal of encroachments, and action against identified government employees.

The Court has banned the approval or initiation of new non-forest activities or diversion proposals in the Agasthyamalai landscape and directed the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) to continuously monitor the area.

Justice Mehta, who authored the order, stated that the state government is primarily responsible for the delay in receiving claims under the 2006 Act. He noted that so far, only 40 Gram Sabhas have become operational to initiate the process of inviting claims. The Court has given the state government a final opportunity of 30 days to complete the formation of the remaining Gram Sabhas. The process of judicial decision on claims will be completed within a period of five months from the date of constitution of the Gram Sabhas.

Additionally, the Court has constituted a 'Special Committee' under the chairmanship of former Chief Justice B.R. Gavai to oversee the speedy disposal of claims and to examine orders passed by competent authorities under the 2006 Act.

The Supreme Court has directed the CEC to provide an opinion on the government's view that silk cotton is a 'minor forest produce'. This is significant for the biosphere as silk cotton is currently being cultivated on 3,637.83.2 hectares out of 5,072.64.3 hectares of forest land.

Giving a prima facie view against the state's claim of historical cultivation of silk cotton, the Court said, "What emerges from the government's affidavits is that silk cotton is promoted and sponsored cultivation as a commercial crop." The Court observed that the concept of planned cultivation of commercial crops is completely contrary to the concept of naturally occurring minor forest produce. If cultivation of commercial crops is permitted in forest areas, the character of the forest will change, and large areas of forest are being destroyed under the pretext of silk cotton cultivation.

Separately, the Court has directed the CEC to examine the proposal of the National Highways Authority of India regarding NH-744, which includes the Puliyara-Adamon tunnel section, requiring permission for the diversion of a limited area of reserved forest land in the biosphere. This action was taken as per a report by The Hindu.