Under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights)…

Answer: (d) Gram Sabha

Section 6(1) of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 names the Gram Sabha as the authority that starts the process of deciding the nature and extent of individual and community forest rights. Officials come in only at later stages, to examine and decide the claims the Gram Sabha passes up.

• ✗ (a) The Forest Department is not the Section 6(1) authority and does not start the process. Forest officers sit only on the later committees that examine and decide claims after the Gram Sabha has acted.
• ✗ (b) The District Collector chairs the District Level Committee, whose decision on the record of forest rights is final. It decides claims at the end and does not initiate the process.
• ✗ (c) These officials are not the initiating authority. Once the Gram Sabha passes its resolution, the Sub-Divisional Level Committee examines it and prepares the record of forest rights for the District Level Committee.
• ✓ (d) Under Section 6(1), the Gram Sabha starts the process. It receives claims, consolidates and verifies them, and prepares a map of each recommended claim. It then passes a resolution and forwards it to the Sub-Divisional Level Committee.

Remember · Under FRA 2006, the Gram Sabha (the full village assembly, not the gram panchayat) initiates forest-rights claims. The Sub-Divisional and District Level Committees examine and decide them afterwards.

Question: UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) 2013, General Studies paper. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 25 Oct 2026 (how we verify). · Report an error