Unclassed Forests (UFs) are a category of forests classified under ‘Recorded Forest Area’ as per the Forest Survey of India. India has a total of 120,753 km² of UFs, of which 58% are located in the northeastern region. The majority of these forests are under the de facto or de jure control of indigenous local communities and are often clubbed under a poorly defined and understood term “community forests”, despite the fact that within this category there are multiple non-forest land use types such as agriculture, human settlements and cash crop plantations. Their management is largely driven by collection of wild bioresources, timber, bamboo, cultivation type, environmental flow requirements, and market pressures while governance is conducted according to the customary laws. According to the 2021 Forest Survey of India report, Arunachal Pradesh contains 27,312 km² of Unclassed Forests which constitutes 53% of the total 51,540 km2 of Recorded Forest Area. However, the State Forest Department report an area of 30,161.44 km2 recorded under “Unclassed State Forests” (USF). In Siang Valley, located in the eastern part of the state and dominated by the Adi tribe, majority of forest area is classified under the USF category, as per Assam Forest Regulation Act, 1891. On ground, the category of USF holds little significance. The structure of governance of these lands and such forests are still performed according to customary laws, with traditional institutions such as the village council or the kebang, serving as the administrative and judicial body. The Adis depend on their surrounding forests for their livelihood through cultivation, hunting, fishing, and foraging. The social structure of Adi villages revolves around control over cultivable land and community forests. However, these customary laws do not have legal status under any formal legislation but nevertheless command the de facto jurisprudence legitimacy for most cases and are rarely challenged by the existing formal legal structures. The Adi village boundaries are independent of each other and include vast tracts of forests used for cultivation, foraging, hunting and conserving natural resources such as water and wild bio-resources. The forests within village boundaries are divided and owned by individual members of the village. Recently, state-led initiatives promoting permanent agriculture, such as wet rice cultivation in terrace farms, and plantations of cash crops for market, have resulted in a partial diversification and in some cases, a complete shift from traditional practice of shifting cultivation (jhum). Such agricultural transformations along with massive demands for timber and commodification of land itself have led to the privatisation of cultivable and forest land. For example, the erstwhile traditional hunting and trapping areas, such as the communal morang are now increasingly being interpreted as private property. The transition of property rights over forest land has led to increased privatisation of communal lands and resource sharing within and outside the community.

Using the case of Siang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh where most of the forest land falls under USFs, my study explains the complex and often uneven local tenures, management, and governance realities on-ground for the Unclassed Forests of Northeast mountains. The study also looks at the transformation and changes in the forest governance and management over time.