Gram Sabhas’ community forest resource (CFR) rights reinstate customary management and place it at the centre of forest governance. ”—retired forest officer, Burhanpur (Madhya Pradesh) The term “forest village” sounds innocuous, like a village located deep inside a beautiful forest. But “Forest Village” represents, perhaps, the most extreme form of injustice perpetrated by colonial forest policy. While the zamindari system was abolished elsewhere and tenants got permanent rights, state zamindari continued in Forest Villages with no such rights for its tenants. Currently, other departments see Forest Villages as the foresters’ headache; foresters still see conversion as a “loss of precious forest land” and, of course, a loss of power, and for elected representatives, Forest Villages are too dispersed a vote bank.