India, Nov. 17 -- On October 8 this year, the Chhattisgarh High Court dismissed a petition filed by residents of Ghatbarra village, challenging the cancellation of titles that granted them rights over resources in the Hasdeo Arand forest. This dismissal is not just a setback for one of the first villages in the state to be recognised under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, but could set a dangerous precedent for future conflicts between the rights of forest-dwellers and commercial interests.

The residents of Ghatbarra in Surguja district had moved the court after a district-level forest rights committee (DLC) cancelled the community forest rights (CFR) titles granted to them under FRA, also called the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditio...