It is shocking to see how vulnerable the indigenous people of the hills and plainlands are to the greed of powerful business entities and politicians who regularly grab their ancestral land in the name of development and tourism. The most recent example of this is the decision to construct a five-star hotel and tourist spot in the Chimbuk area of Bandarban. If this hotel is built by encroaching around 800-1000 acres of land, six Mro villages will be destroyed which will leave around 10,000 farmers landless and unemployed. And not only in the hills, indigenous people of the plainlands also face similar threats of being evicted from their ancestral land. While the Modhupur Eco Park and Reserve limits the access of Garo, Koch and Barman ethnic groups to the lands they have traditionally used, the Barapukuria Coal Mine in Dinajpur affects the Santal and Munda. And the Sajek Tourism Complex in Baghaichari of Rangamati affects the Tripura, Lushai and Pankhua people.

Although such development projects forcefully drive away the indigenous people from their lands, no steps are visible from the state to protect their land rights. The government made a commitment to form a land commission for the indigenous people of the plainlands in 2008, but it has not been formed yet. Sadly, our constitution does not even protect the land rights of the indigenous people while it talks about protecting their culture and tradition. How will the state protect indigenous people's culture and tradition if it cannot protect their land rights as well as other basic rights?

Speakers at a recent virtual seminar have recommended that in order to protect their land rights, indigenous people should be granted stewardship of the land they live on. The concept of stewardship is different from that of ownership. Stewardship means people will collectively take responsibility for the maintenance of the land and its biodiversity. Also, if people become custodians of the land that they have taken care of all the time, there will be no need to take it into state ownership, as people themselves will protect it. This will ensure that these indigenous communities can survive while the forests and other natural resources are safeguarded.