Merapani: Palm Oil Project Reignites Old Wound Of Border Dispute

“Doriya Naga, a surrendered NSCN cadre, was given some land in 1962 by then Chief Minister of Assam Bimala Prasad Chaliha. A good gesture aiming to rehabilitate a surrendered cadre of an armed organization eventually turned spooky for the people of Assam residing in the Mearapani region. With time, the Nagas expanded and took control over a huge swath of Assam’s land”—this appears to be the consensus genitum of some people residing in the Merapani area bordering Nagaland. Their consensus is not easily verifiable documentarily, but can be read as an indication of aversion.

The wiggly history of the Assam-Nagaland border dispute, however, goes beyond the common saying and so as the history of Merapani, a distant place from the state capital of Guwahati, with a drive of over 6 hours that remains aloof from public attention for most of the time. It is only when the Assam-Nagaland border dispute simmers, Merapani is able to get some notice. How do people in Merapani have managed to sustain their livelihoods for years amidst the disputes is something that has always remained far away from the collective conscience, barring the deep engagement of a few of researchers and community workers. 

Merapani has bubbled again and the same old issue—border dispute with neighboring Nagaland- has surfaced as the problem. However, the latest happenings in Merapani is more worrying as an Oil Palm project is likely to uproot thousands of farmers from their traditional farming practice and livelihoods.

Oil Palm Project, A Bolt From the Blue

Let’s first start with a circular from Nagaland government dated 22nd March. Signed by the deputy director of state seed farm, Nagaland, the circular stated that any farm tenants cannot proceed with farming activity of any sort from the date of issue of the letter.

The reason is that a huge area (within 200 feet from the demarcated boundary of the state seed farm, Merapani), as stated in the circular, will now be utilized for oil-palm plantation under the National Mission on Edible Oils-Oil Palm ( NMEO-OP), a central government programme.

This notice came down as a bolt from the blue for thousands of people who have been earning their livelihoods primarily by paddy cultivation in the seed farm (a sprawling farm area) for generations. Barring them from their practice will dump those families in sheer uncertainties. 

The people who are going to get affected with the proposal of Nagaland government raised intense protest just two days back with the participation of KMSS (Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti) in the leadership. 

KMSS secretary Bidyut Saikia told Pratidin Time that a memorandum has been submitted to the Chief Minister stating that the land belongs to those who have been farming there for years and the Nagaland government doesn’t have any claim over it. “The government of Assam should immediately arrange provision to give permanent land holding (patta) to the farmers. The farmers that are going to be affected are mainly Assamese and the Assam government owes responsibility to save them from a disaster in making. Assam CM and government cannot shed off their responsibilities by saying that the land lies in disputed border area”—Saikia added. 

The Farmers Plight

Tulon Hazarika is 27 years old youth of the Garigaon Japarajan Chuk village who has seen his father and grandfather ploughing the land at the seed farm. “The entire Merapani area is a relatively backward one, and majority is reliant on farming. Our village has negligible government employees. We sustain on agriculture-related work and small businesses. Taking away the land from us is like a meteoric hit on us.”—Tulon told, echoing the same concern of many others that Pratidin Time talked to. 

Rimjim Prasanta from the same village told us that his family has been farming in the land for generations. “I saw my grandfather, my father who ploughed the land, and now I am into the same practice. I have been growing mustard, potato, winter crops apart from the paddy for about 30 years now. My father told me that in 1970s people from other parts of Assam have settled there by clearing forest and growing paddies. Now suddenly this will be snatched away from us”—Prasanta added.

‘Levy’ Paid to Nagaland Authorities?

The customary practice as the farmers told is to pay a ’Levy’ to Nagaland authority for using the land of the seed farm. The seed farm is the disputed area and Nagaland has claimed it to be theirs. So farming here makes the cultivators ‘tenants’ and hence the levy. 

However, the levy is not a property tax in a strict sense. “We use to provide the Nagas some paddies or few thousand rupees or a pair of ducks. We have no idea whether the levys actually goes to the Nagaland government or taken by some local authority. We used to get small slips earlier which they have stopped providing now”—told a farmer of Garigaon village. 

“The levy is very informal and collected by the deputy director office of the seed farm belonging to Nagaland government. The office is at a walking distance from the paddy fields, where the people of Assam do farming and they have been paying tax to Nagaland government”—Bidyut Saikia told Pratidin Time.

Notably, the website of the agriculture department of Nagaland government suggests that the deputy director of the seed farm is a designated post of Nagaland government.

This raises a question that where is the land that farmers of Assam grow paddies at Merapani? Is it in Assam or Nagaland? The farmers of Assam, as they told us, have never paid any property tax to Assam government, neither have they provided MyadiPattas for their farming land. 

The Wiggly History

The seed farm is the bone contention for the farmers. The question is who actually owns it? “Doriya Naga was given 200 acres and now the seed farm sprawls in around 1300 acres, which is claimed by the Nagaland government as their property”—claims Bidyut Saikia.

The unsettled Assam-Nagaland border goes deep down to the colonial time. Summarizing it, Chiranjib Boruah, a research scholar of TISS (Tata Institute of Social Science), Guwahati, gave an instance of the wiggly history. In a nutshell, as Mr. Boruah said—“Somewhere around 1902 the colonial administration established a forest village in Merapani. This was to revive the Doyang forest, which got degraded due to several colonial practices including setting up of tea gardens. They understood that it is an extension of the rainforest of the Patkai range.The system of ‘Begari’ was introduced, where people were settled in a forest village in return of some menial tasks.”

It is worth mentioning that the Naga Hill district was formed in 1866, and by 1873, the ILP (Inner Land Permit) was introduced in Nagaland. The Doyang reserved forest was declared in 1873. “All these sowed the seed of Hills versus Plains sentiment amongst the people”—Chiranjib Boruah commented.

The settling of people in that bordering area continued, and after the 1950 earthquake, there was a surge of migration of communities who lost their homes and hearths. “When migration of people of Assam surged, the Nagas also increased their activities in the plains, which mostly involved clearing the forest and turning it into farming land. The Nagas were not good at the ‘Panikheti’ (the paddy growing technique that became the norm in Assam since the Ahom period), they are instead good at Jhoom cultivation. This perhaps had created the tenant system, where Assamese did the Panikheti and gave some portion to the Nagas in return,”—Boruah explained.

Boruah’s narration of the history of migration to the Merapani area is relatable to what the villagers told us, that their ancestors came to that area around the 1970s and set up farm land by clearing forests. 

The Present Context: Oil Palm Over Border Dispute

Merapani witnessed the massive conflict in 1985 over the Assam-Nagaland border dispute, which resulted in loss of lives from both sides, including common people, and the issue simmers periodically. But the present context is way different from the previous ones.

Palm oil plantations in Nagaland have surged since 2015, and the experiments have mixed outcomes. Importantly, the plantations in Nagaland are done by private players like Shivasais Oil Palm Private Ltd., Patanjali and Godrej. There have been reports of environmental concerns of Oil Palm plantations in huge swathes of land, as the use of heavy chemicals contaminates the water system, including rivers. The need for excess water in these plants is also a major issue, which can result in depletion of the water level and loss of soil fertility. 

Moreover, many farmers, who initially dreamt of a profitable business, later found themselves in losses. In one article by Kelestino Mejura, it was stated that farmers used to get a mere 10 Rs per kg at the end, a huge deviation from what was promised to them—Rs. 200-300 per kg. Roderick Wijunamai, a researcher of the politics of edible oil economy in India, writes that farmers end up finding it tough to earn a profit. 

The main profit, it seems, as in other cases, is earned by the companies that initiate the Oil Palm business and not by the farmers.