Displaced by Flood, Assam’s Indigenous People Allege Harassment at Relocation Sites

Akhak Pegu now resides in the Lisang Gaon, a village near the Jagun reserve forest in Tinsukia district. His daily life struggle has now been aggravated due to harassment by forest officials, an allegation Pegu and others in the area have levelled against the forest department. 

Lisang Gaon houses many Akhak Pegus, whose everything was wolfed down by the ravaging flood at some point in time. Failing to have secured an iota for their loss, they went in search of an alternate space to re-establish their home and hearth. Lisang Gaon, near the Jagun Reserve Forest, bears silent witness to the forgotten histories of countless Akhak Pegus who sought refuge there from various parts of Assam, their stories of suffering otherwise lost to time.

On the 20th of June, a protest of the villagers took place in front of the Jagun Forest Range Office involving several organisations like TMPK, MMK, UBPO, and AARSU. They demanded to stop the continuous harassment that forest officials have been unleashing upon them for quite some sometime.  

Allegation of Harassment Amidst Utter Neglect:

The TMPK (Takam Mising Porin Kebang) Tinsukia district secretary, Ajay Doley, explained Pratidin Time about the allegations of harassment levelled by the villagers of Lisang Gaon—“At the Namchik border of Assam-Arunachal border, there is a forest bit office housing some forest battalion cadres. They often harass the villagers on extremely trivial issues. This has been going on for years and has increased its severity in recent times.”

Continuing, Doley said—“They often enter the village in an inebriated state and threaten the villagers, sometimes beat them. There are instances when villagers are taken to the office and tortured. What are their crimes? To get herbs from the forest, or to get some firewood for daily use? This is not acceptable. We have submitted a memorandum on the protest day, with copies sent to DFO Digboi, the Co-district commissioner, Margherita. Our demand is clear—stop harassing the innocent forest dwellers of Lisang Gaon.”

Describing a recent horrific incident, Doley said—“Just a few days before the protest, probably on 17th June, some cadres of the forest battalion went to the village past midnight and stormed the door of a house with the barrel of a gun. A woman resides in the house, and her husband is outside Assam for livelihood. Feared, that woman screamed to wake up the neighbours. The armed cadre said that they came to get a generator. This was a shock wave for the woman.”

Well, Lisang Gaon doesn’t have an electricity connection to power the houses, forcing people to live an extremely backwards life. To get power for some functions, the villagers have two or three power generators. The battalions stormed the house of the woman past midnight to get that. 

Daily-wage labourers make up the majority of Lisang Gaon’s working population. Deprived of basic welfare amenities like healthcare, education, and electricity, most remain excluded from government beneficiary schemes. Their migration to Jagun was not a choice but a compulsion — yet they are left to fend for themselves, as successive governments virtually abandon any responsibility for their well-being.

Who Are These People That Are Purportedly Harassed?

Akhak Pegu reminisces about his story of displacement from Dhemaji district, his birthplace. In the year 2012, he followed his parents to settle at a new location at Jagun, which would bring insurmountable sufferings to them and many others who lost their homes and hearths to the ravaging flood. 

“I still remember how everything was wolfed down by the river. Left with no choice, my parents and many others fled to other places in Assam. I finally came here just a few months after my parents managed to get some space to raise a kuccha house (made of bamboo). 

Rim Chetri, another resident of Lisang Gaon sharing similar experiences to Pratidin Time, said—“our family came here eight years back, probably in 2017, from Dhemaji. Our land and house were swallowed by the river.”

However, the presence of the flood displaced people in Lisang Gaon by the Jagun forest range can be traced back to two decades, since 2005, Ajay Doley commented.

“People have come from Munmuni Sapori, which is under water now in Dhemaji district. Similarly, people forced to flee from Sadiya, Silapathar, etc., due to floods and erosion, came here. The Lisang Gaon houses many of the indigenous communities of Assam, including the Misings, Bodos, Deoris, and Sonowal Kacharis. But they have failed to get any attention from the government for decades and now face even more hardship,” Doley said. 

A Continuing Saga of Harassment?

Recalling the struggle of the uprooted people in resettling, Akhak Pegu said, “Our people had to face real hardships. Police and forest officials tortured our parents. Our mothers (the women) were jailed for 9 days to be later released on bail.”

This went ahead further to the level of communal flare-up, Ajay Doley told—“Probably it was the year 2014 that saw tension involving two communities, Ahom and Mising.”

“But with the intervention of forest officials and district authorities, it was settled”,—he added.

Akhak Pegu also remembered former Minister Pramila Rani Brahma’s role—“Minister Madam, with officials from the forest department visited us and a settlement was reached by letting us  stay where we were.” Ajay Doley remarked that this incident occurred in 2017, when Mrs. Brahma was a cabinet minister. 

Other residents told us that the area had remained relatively calm since then. However, over the past two years, incidents of harassment by forest officials have significantly increased, they added.

“If we go out to the forest with our machete (dao), the forest battalions will harass us. Even grazing our cattle has become a struggle due to the harassment. On several instances, our people are beaten up, with some taken to the forest camp office. If someone tries to build a pucca house, then they will come and harass," Akhak Pegu told. 

With many men having migrated to states like Tamil Nadu and Kerala in search of better-paying jobs, their wives are left behind to endure long, fearful nights alone.

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