The Community Forest Resource (CFR) rights provisions of the Forest Rights Act 2006 (FRA) have the potential to transform forest governance in India, as they decentralize the authority of forest management to Gram Sabhas. But their implementation has been quite poor. One of the reasons is the lack of information regarding how much forest land might be eligible for CFR claims and in which villages. There is therefore no pressure on the implementing agency to make progress towards a clear target. This study estimates (a lower bound for) the potential area that could come under CFR rights and the locations of the villages with this CFR potential in four important central Indian states: Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Maharashtra, using a combination of Census of India data and maps, and Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques.