Consider the following statements: 1) The definition of “Critical Wildlife Habitat is incorporated in the Forest Rights Act, of 2006. 2) For the first time in India, Baigas have been given Habitat Rights. [2018]

Consider the following statements:

The definition of “Critical Wildlife Habitat is incorporated in the Forest Rights Act, of 2006.
For the first time in India, Baigas have been given Habitat Rights.
Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change officially decides and declares Habitat Rights for Primitive and Vulnerable Tribal Groups in any part of India.

The phrase ‘critical wildlife habitat’ is defined only in the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. CWH are defined under the act as the “areas of national parks and sanctuaries where it has been specifically and clearly established, case by case, on the basis of scientific and objective criteria, that such areas are required to be kept as inviolate for the purposes of wildlife conservation”. Inviolate is a general term used to indicate no human settlement or usage.

The Baiga community in Madhya Pradesh became the first tribe in India to receive habitat rights under the Forest Rights Act of 2006.

Habitat rights are given to PVTGs under Section 3(1) (e) of The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 or Forest Rights Act (FRA).
Ten PVTGs have been granted habitat rights in three states (Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh). Recognition of habitat rights grants communities the right to their traditional territory, socio-cultural practices, livelihoods, ecological and traditional knowledge, and the protection of their natural and cultural heritage. (Habitat rights don’t grant ownership to property).

The process involves District Level Committee (DLC), Gram Sabha, State Government, and Ministry of Tribal Affairs, not MoEFCC.

India has a dedicated Ministry of Tribal Affairs for tribal welfare, so it is highly unlikely that the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change would independently decide and declare Habitat Rights for tribal groups. Hence, Statement 3 can be eliminated. Once Statement 3 is removed, options containing 3 are also eliminated, leaving Statements 1 and 2 as correct.