Living in fear of eviction
Around 72 Khasi families of the Jhimai Punjee in Moulvibazar's Kulaura upazila are living in fear of eviction from the land they have been living on for years following the Jhimai Tea Garden authorities' move to set up demarcation pillars with the help of upazila administration.
On April 11, the tea garden officials along with Kulaura upazila nirbahi officer went to the Jhimai Punjee to install over 100 demarcation pillars.
The punjee people protested it and an altercation ensued. The authorities installed only three pillars and left.
Cultivation of betel leaf is the main source of income for the Khasi families living in the punjee.
Sources said there are around 2,100 trees in the area where Khasi people live as they traditionally conserve woods for cultivating betel leafs in the forest.
The tea garden management had recently got government permission for cutting 2,096 trees down in the leasing area, the sources said.
However, felling of trees would not only threaten the Khasis' existence, it would also affect the environment, right activists and green campaigners said.
Rana Surong, headman of the Jhimai Punjee, claimed that they had been living on government khas land. But the district administration was working in favour of the tea estate management and trying to evict them from the land where they had been living for generations, he added.
The tea garden manager Jakir Hossian, however, refuted the allegation. He claimed that the land belonged to them; rather the indigenous people had grabbed it.
The land dispute had been going on for a long time and the administration was trying to resolve it, said Najmul Islam, upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) of Kulaura.
The UNO said, “We sat with them [Khasi families] today [Wednesday] and wanted to give them two acres of land to each of those Khasi families but they wanted legal ownership of that land.”
“But it is not possible for us to give them the legal ownership of the land,” Najmul said, adding that they would decide on the next course of action regarding the matter soon.
The UNO said the Khasi people of the Jhimai Punjee had been using over 300 acres of land of Jhimai tea estate for a long time. The tea estate was given 672 acres of land in 1937 by the then government but they planted only on some 300 acres, the UNO said.
“We have surveyed and found 59 Khasi families have been living on the leased land of Jhimai tea estate for years without having any legal ownership,” he said.
Kamrul Hasan, deputy commissioner of Moulvibazar, told The Daily Star on April 11 that it was khas land but he did not know whether it was under the district administration or the forest department.
The DC added he initiated talks between the two parties.
Father Joseph Gomes, a Moulvibazar-based central committee member of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon (Bapa), said indigenous people were playing a major role in protecting the environment.
He demanded that harassment of Khasi people be stopped.
Bably Talang, general secretary of KUBORAZ Inter Punjee Development Association of Khasi people, said indigenous people had been living in the small hills for generations and the ownership of the land was their right.
Sanjeeb Drong, general secretary of Bangladesh Adivasi Forum, said the betel leaf gardens were the only source of income of the Khasi at Jhimai punjee.
He said the land belonged to Khasi people as per ILO Convention-107, and demanded that a land commission be formed to resolve the land-related problems of the indigenous people.
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