Moulvibazar Adivasis set to lose cultivable land to India

Khasi and Garo communities will lose their livelihoods if 300 acres of cultivable land in Moulvibazar's Barlekha upazila is given to India as adverse possession, indigenous leaders and rights activists said yesterday.

They demanded that the government investigate and devise a plan so that the minorities could retain the land.

As part of the 1974 Land Boundary Agreement (LBA), Bangladesh will give India 2,777 acres of adversely possessed land and get 2,267 acres in exchange. The land falls in the bordering areas of India's Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, and West Bengal states.

The Pallathal area in Barlekha bordering Assam and Meghalaya consists of adversely possessed land, which includes 300 acres of homestead and cultivable land of Khasi and Garo people.

"We have been living along the border...for centuries and cultivating betel leaf, lemon, banana and pineapple in the land beyond the border pillars of Bangladesh," said Lucas Bahadur, headman of Pallathal Punji (indigenous neighbourhood).

He said even when India built barbed wire fences in 1980s, the indigenous community's land was left alone, and Khasis were allowed to use about 300 acres of land between the pillars of Bangladesh and the barbed fence of India for cultivation.

However, after the start of the LBA implementation last year, the two countries launched surveys to demarcate land for the exchange and India would get the 300 acres accordingly.

Indigenous people, rights activists, politicians and environmentalists demanded that the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) investigate the matter and submit a report to the government.

They raised the demand through a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity.

Meanwhile, the ongoing survey to demarcate land for the exchange should be halted and a national committee with representatives from government and non-government agencies should visit the disputed land in Pallathal, they urged.

"Khasi and Garo people want to stay in their own land. They do not know about the agreement. Neither are they aware that their cultivable land would go under Indian possession," said Sanjeeb Drong, general secretary of Bangladesh Adivasi Forum.

He said though the LBA spoke of thorough consultation with the affected people before planning the agreement, officials of neither country did talk to the Khasi of Pallathal.

Deputy Commissioner of Moulvibazar Kamrul Hasan told The Daily Star that he was not aware of the problem. "This is a settled issue between two countries," he said.

Lucas Bahadur, however, said the DC, upazila nirbahi officer, upazila chairman and local parliament member were informed of the plight of the Khasi through a letter on November 15, 2015. The Daily Star could not independently verify whether the letter was sent to them.

Senior politician Pankaj Bhattacharya urged the government to either provide compensation or find the Khasi an alternative livelihood before giving away their cultivable land to India.