The Tribal Affairs Ministry Secretary Meena Gupta disclosed that the Scheduled Tribes Bill, also known as Recognition of Forest Rights Bill, would be tabled in the next Parliament session. She said that forest officials were treating tribal population living in the forests for millenniums as “encroachers” and is often harassed. The Draft National Policy prepared by the Ministry said that 8.5 million tribal people have been displaced from the forests till 1990 to accommodate some mega "development" projects. The tribal population makes up 55.16% of the total displaced population in India. Referring to a report from the Forest and Environment Department, she said that various tribes occupy 1.3 million hectare of 7.4 million hectare total forestland. She pointed out that of this, only 365,000 hectares of the "encroached" land has been grand fathered and "regularized." The cut-off date for claiming rights to live in the forest is October 25, 1980 and claimants can submit police case, forest case, or other documents to support their claim. The safety measures of this bill to protect the tribal population from land mafias, industrial encroachers, or from binami (front or fictitious names) transactions is not known.

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