Central India is covered with dry-deciduous and moist-evergreen forests and is inhabited by numerous tribal groups. In the recent years many of these tribal men and women or families have received forest land and use rights; either under a joint title or an individual title (in case of a single women or men); additionally, a number of village assemblies are also applying for Community Forest Resources (CFRe) titles under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act. The effects of the act are now receiving attention from researchers and development groups. This research aims to bring out the gender-based developments arising out of the implementation of the act with references to ground level practices and developments in Odisha. One of the key focus is regarding the issue of existing and emerging landuse in these newly allotted forestland parcels and if this is influenced by the gender of the owner? Literature review shows that there exist gaps in discussions concerning gender inclusion within the FRA provisions. Studies on suitability of agroforestry-based developments in forest fringes and in the regions of overlapping forest-farm interactions have found encouraging results from cases elsewhere. The research will also bring out information on existing agroforestry practices on these forest land parcels and will explore if agroforestry practices could further be promoted as a development strategy in these regions. The unique geographical and social settings of these small sized individual and community forest land parcels in the forest ecosystems thus provides interesting cases for research and inquiry.