Mahim Pratap Singh Dindori (M.P.): Community claims under the forest rights Act in this predominantly tribal district, as in rest of the State, are a cause for concern as precious community-owned resources are at stake for the tribals of Dindori. The tribals, mostly the Baiga, a Primitive Tribal Group (PTG), seem to be running against time as bureaucratic hurdles keep delaying the process of filing and reviewing claims under The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act, 2006. To begin with, there is still plenty of confusion regarding the implementing department. While the Act and its implementation fall under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, on the ground, the process, at the initial levels, is still dominated by lower level forest bureaucracy. The forest department, although officially has nothing to do with the implementation of the Act, still has a terrorizing presence in the minds of tribals and other forest dwellers here. Further, the forest bureaucracy, along with the district administration, are often responsible for creating hurdles in the filing of community claims. This is done through various means. To start with, while forest dwellers are now aware of making individual claims under the Act, there is hardly any awareness being created regarding community claims. In terms of sustenance and survival of the community, the latter are often more important. Further, the forest officials along with the district administration are also to provide the community, when it demands through the gram sabha, two documents required in the filing of community claims -- the Wajib-ul-Arz and the Nistaar-Patrak, which are basically long term official records of customs about the use of common land by the community. These documents are crucial for the filing of community claims under the Act. However, the district and forest officials have regularly delayed the process of making these documents available to tribals here. According to community members working as activists in the region, 17 villages in the Samnapur block of the district, are yet to receive these documents, demanded from SDM, Dindori on October 28 last. This situation, villagers jokingly say, is still better than that in Betul, another tribal dominated district, where these documents have been withheld for over 110 gram sabhas. What is most worrying is the consistent reports of massive corruption in the process at the lowest levels, which operates in two ways: through sale of claim forms and later through the collection of