Forests and tribals share a symbiotic relationship. Tribals continue to live in forest areas, though in isolation, yet in harmony with environment. Historically, tribal communities have depended on forests for their livelihoods, both for cultivation and forest product collection. Tribals were severely marginalized by reservation of forests during the colonial and postcolonial period.

The total forest cover in India is reported to be 765.21 thousand sq. kms. of which 71% are adivasi areas. Of these 416.52 and 223.30 thousand sq. kms. are categorised as reserved and protected forests respectively. About 23% of these are further declared as wild-life sanctuaries and national parks which alone has displaced some half a million Adivasis. By the process of colonisation of the forests that began formally with the Forest Act of 1864 and finally the Indian Forest Act of 1927, the rights of adivasis were reduced to mere privileges conferred by the state. The Forest Policy of 1952, the Wild Life Protection Act of 1972 and the Forest Conservation Act of 1980 has further deprived tribal peoples of their rights in forested landscapes of the state in the post-colonial period. The expropriation of adivasis from their forest lands and their political marginalisation and neglect in development initiatives has been a major cause for the prevalence and persistence of acute poverty in India’s forested landscapes.

The process of alienation of the lands of adivasis has been going on for decades, but has accelerated after independence. Despite special safeguards, tribals continue to struggle for mere survival as they face formidable problems and displacement due to development of national parks and wild-life sanctuaries and other projects and lack of development in forest villages. The protection of rights of tribals in forests is the key to the amelioration of their conditions.The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006 has been passed by Parliament to address the injustice done to tribal and adivasi communities and other forest dwellers. It confers legal entitlements on the lands they were cultivating for centuries. Forest Rights Act 2006 promises to be a pro-poor institutional reform, and indeed, many poor have already benefited from its implementation. However, the process has been severely anti-poor, and so the pro poor benefits have been restricted in many ways .