CHENNAI — The Supreme Court ordered the eviction of forest-dwelling communities in Theni district and directed that Central Armed Police Forces be deployed to remove them if they do not vacate voluntarily. P Shanmugam, Communist Party of India (Marxist) Tamil Nadu State Secretary, condemned the order and urged the state government to file a review petition seeking a stay on the judgment.

Shanmugam alleged that the Forest Rights Act has not been fully implemented in Tamil Nadu, despite being in force for nearly two decades. He noted that approximately 34,000 eligible beneficiaries have still not received land titles under the law. "Even though nearly 20 years have passed since the law came into force, land titles have still not been issued to 34,000 people," he said. "The Government of Tamil Nadu should file a review petition before the Supreme Court and seek to have this judgment stayed."

Shanmugam also criticized the court’s directive to use Central Armed Police Forces for eviction, calling it "strongly condemnable." He reiterated that unlike other states, Tamil Nadu has not completed the implementation process of the Forest Rights Act, leaving thousands of forest-dwellers without legal recognition of their land claims. According to a 2026 report referenced in Supreme Court proceedings, the state’s Resettlement and Rehabilitation Action Plan has faced bottlenecks, including unverified reserve forest maps and delays in FRA implementation.

The Forest Rights Act, enacted in 2006, grants legal recognition to the rights of forest-dwelling communities over land they have traditionally inhabited. The unresolved status of 34,000 land titles in Tamil Nadu leaves those communities vulnerable to displacement without due process. With the Supreme Court now ordering eviction and authorizing police enforcement, the state government faces heightened pressure to act on long-pending implementation gaps.