Tension has gripped the Assam-Nagaland border again after some miscreants from Nagaland tried to erect houses in Tiru Hills Reserved Forest area under Jorhat district in Assam, located along the border of the two neighbouring States. The Assam Government has been destroying the houses erected by the miscreants from the other side of the border. Both the Assam and Nagaland Governments have already deployed security forces to prevent any further escalation of tension.
"The problem started a few days back when some people from Nagaland started preparing the jungles for their jhum (shifting) cultivations. They also tried to erect the temporary shades along the fields -- this, perhaps, was seen as an attempt to encroach on the Assam's land and people from Assam objected to it," said a senior official from the Mokokchung district in Nagaland that borders Jorhat district in Assam.
"We have deployed forces along the border. However, the forces are deployed not to fight but to maintain peace and tranquility in the area. The Assam-Nagaland border is yet to be demarcated and we are not sure who is encroaching upon whose land," he said, while calling for restraint from people from both sides. "There were attempts to erect houses in the Tiru Hills Reserved Forests even on Tuesday and we have destroyed those. A total of two companies of security forces had been deployed along the border," said Jorhat Superintendent of Police Amandeep Kaur.
She said that the situation is normal and under control as of now but, we cannot take any chance considering the sensitive border issue between the two States and hence deployment was made. Assam and Nagaland share a 434-km border. The Assam-Nagaland border area has been divided, for administrative convenience, into six sectors -- A, B, C, D, E and F -- spread over Sivasagar, Jorhat, Golaghat and Karbi Anglong districts.
The Assam-Nagaland border conflict dates back to December 1, 1963, when Nagaland was officially declared a State after a 16-point agreement was signed in 1960 between then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the leaders of the Naga People's Convention. There have been 17 skirmishes between the two bordering States since then, which include two major incidents in which close to 200 people from both the States lost their lives.