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Naga body passes verdict on decades-old land row on Manipur border
The Naga body said the judgment is based on customs and traditions of Tenyimi people, and the state political boundary will not be affected
A Naga tribal body has passed a verdict on the decades-old traditional and ancestral land ownership dispute between three Naga tribal communities of Nagaland (Angami) and Manipur (Mao and Maram) in the periphery of the scenic Dzükou valley.
The Tenyimi Public Organisation (TPO), a conglomerate of 10 Tenyimi-Naga tribes that share common kinship including the Angami, Mao and Maram, in its presidential meeting on Friday passed a verdict on the longstanding row of traditional ownership of “Kezoltsa” forest (also called Koziirii and Kazing in different Naga tribal dialects) that stretches across the border of the two neighbouring states, distributing/earmarking the whole forest area into three sections between the disputing parties— Southern Angamis of Nagaland, and the Mao Council and Maram Khullen of Manipur.
The TPO presidential council order and the undertaking mentions that separate areas of the disputed land were earmarked for the three contesting parties to preserve and protect from all forms of exploitation and to be caretakers of their respective areas, under strict supervision of the TPO.
As per the organisation, the judgment is based on customs and traditions of Tenyimi people, and the state political boundary will not be affected.
Terming the presidential council judgment as “final and binding on all parties”, the TPO highlighted that if any party refuses to accept and comply with this judgment, that particular party shall cease to be a member of TPO and the remaining parties shall stand united on all issues against that party.
The verdict comes after an earlier judgment passed on December 2022 wherein the whole disputed land was deemed as common property of the three contending parties. This was rejected by the Southern Angami Public Organization (SAPO) and Mao Council.
Subsequently, the Angami Public Organistion (APO), the parent body of SAPO intervened in 2023, and all the three parties in separate letters reposed faith in the APO and authorised it to mediate on the matter on the basis of traditional and cultural practices of the Tenyimis and resolve the dispute amicably. The APO further took upon the TPO to once again take up the issue and review its 2022 judgment.
After conducting spot verifications with the contesting parties along with their position papers and accompanying documents, maps etc. and holding multiple marathon meetings, TPO presidential meeting delivered the verdict.
The issue had started over three decades ago and had been aggravated in recent years after development activities were initiated into the virgin forest land by the Manipur government. Tribal ancestral and traditional lands lie across the Nagaland-Manipur political state boundary, which was drawn without the consent of the locals — living in the southern Angami villages of Nagaland under the banner of Southern Angami Public Organization (SAPO), the neighbouring Mao Naga villages of Manipur under Mao Council, and Maram Khullen Naga village of Manipur.
As per the southern Angamis, who have traditional stewardship claims over the disputed area, Mao people have no traditional territory that borders with Kezoltsa and this is acknowledged also by the people of Maram Khullen of Manipur who share a common traditional ancestral boundary with the Angamis. The Mao people, on the other hand, say their traditional land extends to where the southern Angami had built a rest house in Kezoltsa area, and alleged that the latter had encroached into the traditional land of the Maos.
The matter gained more attention after independent legislator Kevipodi Sophie of Nagaland raised the matter in the state assembly earlier this year. He said the issue was not an attempt to alter or change any political state boundary, though drawn without the consent of the local dwellers, but to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on whichever side of the arbitrary boundary it may fall.
Nagaland deputy chief minister in-charge of home and border affairs, Yanthungo Patton assured to protect the traditional land of the people while calling for an amicable resolution of the dispute through the concerned tribal bodies.
