The document discusses the Forest Rights Act of 2006 in India. The act aims to secure tenure rights and other traditional rights of forest-dwelling tribes and communities over forest areas. It recognizes individual and community rights related to habitation, cultivation, use, access to minor forest produces, grazing lands, and community rights over forest resources. The gram sabha or village council is empowered to initiate the process of determining forest rights. Authorities violating the act's provisions can face penalties. While some criticized that the act could reduce forest land for wildlife, its true purpose is to recognize existing rights and not grant new land titles. The act provides legal rights to forest-dwelling communities who previously had no rights over the forests they long inhabited