The Forest Rights Act (FRA) is legislation meant to advance the rights to land for Indigenous forest peoples in India. The author identifies two main challenges to the implementation of the FRA as the incompatibility of the legislation with Advisasi's legal traditions, and the reliance on elected officials to work towards justice. The legislation operates amidst colonial legal frameworks and neoliberal ideology. The author discusses the colonial legal past of India and the recent trend towards recognition of human rights and Indigenous human rights reflected by international law instruments such as UNDRIP. The author argues that these rights have not been realized in reality, and provides the protest of a hydroelectricity project in Chamba District as an example of the government’s disregard for the FRA. The author concludes by emphasizing that continued government neglect of the FRA risks ‘hollowing’ out the efficacy of the land rights that the legislation grants.