Mizoram, Assam to maintain status quo in disputed border areas: Lalduhoma

Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma on Friday said that his state and Assam have agreed to maintain the status quo in the disputed border areas after a fresh tension erupted along the inter-state boundary.
Speaking at a conference of the Mizoram Police Service Association (MPSA) here, Lalduhoma said he has talked to his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma, after the recent incident along the inter-state border. “We have agreed to continue to respect and maintain the status quo in the disputed areas along the inter-state border, which we have already discussed earlier,” the chief minister said.
On August 15, police personnel and forest department officials from Assam allegedly entered Saikhawthlir village in west Mizoram’s Mamit district and damaged around 290 rubber plants being cultivated by locals.
The incident has sparked tensions along the inter-state border. Mizoram officials said the plantation was undertaken under the Chief Minister’s Rubber Mission and managed by the state’s land resources, soil and water conservation department.
Following the incident, deputy commissioners and police chiefs of Mizoram’s Mamit and Assam’s Hailakandi districts held a crucial meeting on Monday.
During the meeting, they discussed resolving the issue amicably and agreed to make better arrangements to prevent such an incident in the future, an official said here. It was also decided that the matter would be referred to higher authorities.
During the meeting, both states claimed the disputed area as part of their territory.
Mamit Deputy Commissioner K. Laltlawmlova informed Assam officials that the area near Saikhawthlir village, where rubber trees were destroyed, falls under the Kawrtha forest division and is included in the map prepared by the GIS cell of Mizoram’s Environment, Forest and Climate Change department, a statement said. Hailakandi Deputy Commissioner Abhishek Jain, on the other hand, claimed that the area falls within the inner line reserve forest, Gharmura range in Hailakandi, and is protected under the Reserved Forest Act, 1980.
He said that section 2A of the Reserved Forest Act prohibits the planting of rubber trees and other plants within the inner line forest area.
Jain also informed Mizoram officials that plantation of rubber trees within a 1.5 km radius of Assam territory could be a violation of the Reserved Forest Act and could draw serious attention of the National Green Tribunal.
Three Mizoram districts — Aizawl, Kolasib and Mamit — share a 164.6 km long border with Assam’s Cachar, Sribhumi and Hailakandi districts. The border dispute between the two northeastern states, mainly stemmed from two conflicting colonial-era demarcations — one in 1875 under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation and another in 1933.
It is a long-pending issue which has been unresolved till date.
The dispute escalated into violence on several occasions, and a clash between police forces of both states near Mizoram’s Vairengte village on July 26, 2021, resulted in the death of seven people, including six policemen, from Assam.
Since August 2021, the two northeastern states have held four rounds of ministerial-level talks, besides negotiations and virtual meetings at the official level, to resolve the decades-old border dispute.
In the last official-level talks held in Guwahati in April, both states agreed to maintain the status quo in the disputed areas and to expedite responses to claims made by Mizoram.