One day the Madras Forest Department notifies the forests as “Reserved Forest” under the Madras Forest Act, a version of the Indian Forest Act, 1878. The FRA recognised, quite belatedly, what should have been obvious to independent India in 1947: that the Indian Forest Act is actually a British Indian Forest Act, passed by the British for the British. The Forest Rights Act challenges this entire structure of top-down forest governance, beginning with the “illegality” of the forest-dwellers’ presence but going far beyond. Thirdly, the Act seeks to abolish the oppressive system of Forest Villages where all developmental activities are controlled by the forest department. Ultimately, revamping the colonial-era Indian Forest Act and harmonising other laws with the FRA’s idea of bottom-up forest governance will be essential.