North-East India’s Border Rows: A Solution on the Cards?

The governments must realize that all the states of the North-East must stay united for the overall development of the region, because any disturbance in this part of the country will help countries inimical to India to foment trouble.

With Assam and Meghalaya coming closer towards a permanent settlement of their border disputes, it is a positive sign that Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio has also advocated the need for talks and negotiations to settle the long-pending border disputes with Assam. But, a case on the Assam-Nagaland border dispute remains sub-judice in the Supreme Court of India. In the wee hours of March 22, 2022, a few miscreants reportedly from Nagaland, had destroyed a forest area in the Tiru Hills Reserve Forest along the Assam-Nagaland border under Mariani Range of the Jorhat Forest Division.

After receiving information, a team from the Forest Department accompanied by local police personnel, visited the spot and found that about 100 square metres area of bamboo plantations were set on fire. Suspecting it to be an attempt of encroachment upon land, the site where the incident took place was near to a location which was earlier encroached upon a few years ago. Immediate measures were taken to douse the fire so as to prevent its spread, besides intensifying police patrolling in order to contain the outbreak of violence. It may be mentioned here that due to the decade-old inter-state border row, incidents of alleged encroachment, at times leading to violence, has resulted in intermittent tensions flaring up along the Assam-Nagaland border.

The Government of Arunachal Pradesh has also come forward to settle its decades-old boundary dispute with Assam through negotiations. By convening preliminary discussions on the issue, the long-standing issue has been taken up in the right earnest with both the state governments working to settle the issue amicably through mutually agreed upon criteria. In fact, it was just a few months back while attending a programme to mark the 36th Statehood Day of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma had announced that Assam and Arunachal Pradesh would engage in 'serious dialogue' to amicably resolve the long-pending border disputes and find a permanent solution.

Sarma, who is also the convenor of the BJP-led North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), further mentioned that the people of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh have always shared a close affinity, and that state boundaries might have divided them physically, but emotionally they always shared a deep connection. He also assured the people of Arunachal Pradesh that the Government of Assam is ever-ready to do whatever is required to maintain the age-old relationship between the two neighbouring states. The CMs of both the states have already held a few meetings wherein they decided to conduct ground-level surveys along the inter-state border and thus take the boundary settlement process forward.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has directed both Assam and Arunachal Pradesh to resolve the issue at the state level. The governments of the respective states have already initiated the process of resolving their boundary disputes by taking the Assam-Meghalaya boundary dispute resolution model as the example. A joint move has begun to resolve the border disputes with respect to 122 villages, covering an area of 850 sq. km. Twenty-two villages out of these 122 disputed villages are situated inside Arunachal Pradesh, although the maps present a quite different picture. It may be recalled here that a High Powered Ministerial Committee (HPMC) on the vexed Arunachal Pradesh-Assam inter-State boundary was constituted by the state government of Arunachal Pradesh under the leadership of Chief Minister Pema Khandu on July 15, 2021.

It has been learnt that the Committee convened several meetings with various stakeholders and has already finalised its recommendation over the matter, following the procurement of high-resolution satellite images, besides extensive and rigorous ground-level studies and verification exercises conducted by the Deputy Commissioners of 12 districts of Arunachal Pradesh sharing boundaries with Assam. All the disputed boundaries were physically visited and reviewed by the HPMC in consultation with political leaders, student leaders, NGOs, public, etc. of the areas concerned. The role of the State Remote Sensing Application Centre situated in Itanagar has also been significant in this regard for its work in drawing the boundary map.

However, it needs to be mentioned here that the HPMC's recommendation is not the final solution to the boundary issue. It will only act as the basis on which the state government will have discussions with its Assam counterpart for a permanent resolution of the issue. Despite the issue being sub-judice with the Supreme Court of India, incidents of encroachment into the territory of Arunachal Pradesh are being regularly reported. Arunachal Pradesh is, however, aware of the situation and has initiated dialogue with the neighbouring state whenever such incidents have come to the fore in the past. To recall, the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh boundary dispute was inherited from the North-East Frontier Tracts (NEFT), as 1 district of the state shares a total of 716 km of boundary with Assam.

The Supreme Court appointed the Local Boundary Commission which, in 2014, submitted its findings and recommendations to the Court. As per the Cabinet decision of March 3, 2015, Arunachal Pradesh agreed upon the recommendations. However, Assam did not accept them and filed a rejoinder to the original suit number 1 of 1989. As informed by Arunachal Pradesh's Home Minister Bamang Felix, the apex court has decided that a regular trial will be taken up upon framing of issues. As of now, cross-examination of the Assam side has been completed. Affidavits of the witnesses on the side of Arunachal Pradesh are also being filed before the apex court.

Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma has reiterated several times in the past that solving boundary issues with the neighbouring hill states is one of the topmost priorities of his government. With the boundary disputes being resolved, the age-old amity among the people of the neighbouring states would reinforce. It would also further strengthen the spirit of a united North-East. However, the major problem remains with that of Mizoram. The police forces of Assam and Mizoram were involved in a deadly gun battle in July 2021, which led to major casualties of both police personnel and as well as common civilians. It is not very easy for Assam to come to a settlement with Mizoram with respect to the border issue, mainly because of the fact that Mizoram requires a significant chunk of cultivable land in the plains.

However, efforts to settle these disputes must continue in the right earnest. Most importantly, the state governments must realize the fact that all the states of the North-East must stay united for the overall development of the region, because any disturbance in this part of the country will help countries inimical to India to foment trouble. Peaceful co-existence among all the states and handling all issues in the best possible manner peacefully is very important. Without peace, development is very difficult. The seriousness of the border problem in the North-East can aptly be understood with reference to an order of the Jorhat district magistrate under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code few months back.

A night curfew was clamped within the 5-km belt on the Assam side of the Assam-Nagaland border in Jorhat district of Upper Assam, thereby prohibiting the movement of all kinds of vehicles/persons, etc. It may be pertinent to mention here that Jorhat district shares an over 100-km long border with Nagaland, cutting across a swathe of rough terrain and dense forests. The order had clearly stated that the measure was taken in view of information received by the district authorities from the Intelligence Branch and district police that some members of different organisations could covertly sneak into the district through the inter-state border to foment trouble.

The order also clearly mentioned that as per an Intelligence report, ULFA (I) had recently enrolled new cadres into their group and they could have used the Assam-Nagaland border areas for transporting equipment and for other purposes. The imposition of night curfew along the inter-state border areas of Assam and Nagaland has been a practice since a long time now. It has had its own share of contribution in the prevention of inter-state crime and anti-national activities in Jorhat district and a few other districts of Upper Assam, by serving as an effective deterrent against using the Assam-Nagaland border areas as a transit route for the smuggling of drugs and arms in particular.

The Central Government had entrusted the Manohar Parrikar Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis with the responsibility of carrying out a detailed study of the inter-state boundary disputes between the different states of North-East India. The members of the Institute held regular talks with the concerned state governments and also collected several documents available with the states on the issue. After going through the relevant records, the Institute prepared a draft report and sent the same to the concerned State Governments for their comments. It is because the comments of the Governments of the concerned states are a must before preparing the final report.

Retrospectively speaking, Government of India should have clearly demarcated the boundaries while carving out the new states from Assam. But, the government at that time adopted a fire-fighting approach and created new states in haste without properly examining the long-term viability of the creation of such small states. When a person of a district cultivates land in another district, no one opposes such an action. But, when a new state is created, the district boundaries become political boundaries and if a person from one state does something in another, it creates several problems. That is why, the state boundaries should have been properly demarcated at the time of the creation of new states.

But, it is better late than never. Trying to find a long-lasting solution to age-old disputes, especially border issues, is a tough job. But, with the respective state governments to the dispute having the right political will, a solution will nevertheless come out. It is a welcome development that the states in the North-East have now realised the need for settling disputes through talks in a mutually conducive atmosphere. It will definitely take time to permanently settle the disputes since all the state governments have their own political compulsions, which cannot be sidelined. At the same time, it is also very important to keep the interests of the people of each of the states in mind while conducting such negotiations and not just stick to longheld positions.

It is time tension, which often degenerates into outright acts of violence, is replaced with mutual trust, bonhomie, and lasting peace. Of course, one does not need to lower one's guard in order to arrive at a mutually acceptable solution. Close on the heels of the signing of the agreement on resolving the first phase of the border row with respect to the six disputed areas of difference between Assam and Meghalaya, the reaction of the local people of Boko along the Assam-Meghalaya border in the Kamrup district seemed mixed. It was reported that miscreants from Meghalaya allegedly uprooted a pillar of the Assam Government's Survey Department at Komapduli village near Langpih along the Assam-Meghalaya border at Boko on the night on March 30, 2022.

The miscreants had uprooted two concrete poles which were erected in Kompaduli a week before the incident. The three disputed areas of the Boko constituency in Kamrup district are Gijang, Hahim, and Tarabari. It has been reported that many villages in this area of Assam now fall under the jurisdiction of Meghalaya. A village called Malang Shalbari under the Tarabari region was reportedly in Assam and not Meghalaya. There was joy among the families (numbering around 30) residing in this village prior to the signing of the MoU on March 29. They wanted to be with Assam. But, after the signing of the MoU, a few anti-social elements were allegedly harassing the people supporting to stay in Assam at the Malang Shalbari village in Tarabari.

Leaving aside the disputed sections where the maintenance of status-quo is warranted, growing encroachment on Assam's territory over the years, has made the state part with vast tracts of forested land with successive state governments choosing to look the other way. Alongside resolving border disputes, it is no less a necessity to accord enhanced protection across those areas bordering our neighbours, especially the forested areas. This will serve the twin purpose of securing our borderland and also protecting our invaluable forest wealth. It is an open secret that none of these forests have any security mechanism in the form of manpower, forest camps, patrolling jungle roads, etc. This has also been an important factor in emboldening our neighbouring country Bangladesh to prey upon our land with impunity.

(A special note of thanks to Manish Ji for helping me with data collection and newspaper report analysis, as well as for enlightening me on several important aspects of the Assam-Nagaland border in Jorhat district).

Ankita Dutta is a researcher from Assam. She has done M.Phil. and Ph.D. from JNU, New Delhi. Her area of specialisation is the culture and history of North-East India, with focus on recent socio-political developments in the region.