Kokrajhar, 19 August 2025 – The All Assam Tribal Sangha (Kokrajhar District Committee) staged a fierce protest on Thursday, opposing the Assam government's decision to include eight additional communities under the Protected Classes of Persons within the Tirap Tribal Belt.
Protesters burn government notification, demand immediate rollback
The protest saw demonstrators burning copies of the government notification, demanding its immediate withdrawal. Tribal leaders described the move as “anti-tribal” and warned that it poses a serious threat to the survival and land rights of Aboriginal Scheduled Tribes for whom the belt was originally created.
Sangha calls move “anti-tribal”, warns of threat to Aboriginal land rights
The communities newly granted protected status in the Tirap Tribal Belt are Ahom, Matak, Moran, Chutia, Gorkha, Koch Rajbongshi, Tea Garden community, and Adivasi. Their inclusion, according to the Sangha, could accelerate land encroachment and settlement by non-indigenous groups, thereby diluting existing protections for original tribal inhabitants.
The controversial notification was issued by the Revenue & Disaster Management Department and signed by Additional Chief Secretary Lamchonghoi Sweety Changsang. It cites the Governor’s powers under Sub-section (2) of Section 160 of Chapter X of the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation, 1886 (as amended) to justify the changes, which are to take immediate effect.
The Tirap Tribal Belt, located within the Margherita Revenue Circle, covers 62 villages and over 2,90,000 bighas of land. It was established specifically to safeguard the land rights of indigenous tribal communities.
“We will continue our agitations across the region until the government rolls back this notification,” said a Sangha leader. “This is not just a legal issue, but one of survival for our people.”
The protest underscores the growing tension between state policy decisions and indigenous rights, as tribal organisations vow to escalate their campaign to protect ancestral lands.