Manipur violence and New Mining/Forest Acts 2023; Related?

Updated: 9/10/2024
Copy Link

Does Manipur Violence i.e. Kuki-Zo vs Methei fight and these new bills 'New Mining/Forest Acts 2023' create a new link?

Manipur tribes, hills ownership & reservation[1][2]

  • The Meiteis, who form about 60 per cent of the population, can currently reside in just 10 per cent of the total land area in Manipur
  • The rest 90% of Manipur - consisting of hill districts - belongs to the tribals, mainly Kukis and Nagas
  • The Meitei are predominantly Hindu and largely live in capital Imphal and the prosperous valley around it, while the mainly Christian Kuki-Zo usually live in scattered settlements in the state’s hills
  • Longstanding tensions between the two communities have revolved around competition for land and public jobs

The purported cause for the clashes appears to be the dominant and politically stronger Meitei community’s demand for ST status

Most of the Kuki and Naga tribes live in these mountains and non-tribes Methei are not allowed to buy land in the mountains

Manipur Hills & rare Earth Minerals [3][4][5][6]

Surveys by GSI (Geological Survey of India) in Manipur has reported finding of Nickel, copper and Platinum Group Elements (PGE) / Platinum Group Metals apart from Malachite, Azurite and Magnetite.

  • ~20 million metric tonnes of limestone deposits
  • 6.66 MT of chromite resources

This lies under the earth strata of the hills which is the home to tribals for 1000s of years.

Manipur hills & Corporate/Comercial interests[5:1]

Due to these rare earth minerals, there are obvious commercial interests in these hills

Forest (Conservation) Act 1980[7][8]

  • 1980 act identified reserved forests for the first time and gave them legal rights and protection in Independent India
  • The 1980 Act makes it difficult to undertake any type of deforestation and development projects on forest land except for schools, hospitals and roads

Apart from state and center Govt permissions, civil society has the power to challenge it in court because of the rights given to the forests

In addition, a 1996 Supreme Court judgment provided more enhanced protection to forest land and gave the state government the power to identify more forest land, which was not notified in the previous 1980 Act[9]

New forest (Conservation) 2023 Amendment Act[10]

  • It takes away the legal rights of the forest
  • The Bill exempts certain types of land from the purview of the Act

This includes land within 100 km of India's border required for strategic and National security-related projects

100 km rule near the border covers almost whole of all small states in North Eastern India

  • Mining of critical and deep-seated minerals is coming under the National Security Related Project
  • The land which has been notified as forest after the October 25, 1980  and 1996 court judgment, will not be considered as forest in this act
  • The bill additionally allows running zoos, safaris, eco-tourism facilities, and other development work in Reserve forests. Running zoos and safaris in reserved forests is prohibited as per a recent Supreme Court judgment, but this act overturns that decision[11]
  • Forest comes under concurrent list so state and center have equal rights and power to make laws on forest. But this act gave the Center more power to regulate forest and mining-related products such as timber bamboo, and minerals i.e. open to legal challenge?

New Mines and Minerals Bill[12]

  • According to this bill, the private sector is allowed to mine those rare earths which are important for economic development and national security

Previously only the Govt sector company were allowed to mine rare earth minerals, now Corporates get nod

What activists say?

Rich mineral, gas reserves are a motive for Manipur conflict say activists[13]

References:

  1. https://www.outlookindia.com/national/why-kuki-meitei-conflict-in-manipur-is-more-than-just-and-ethnic-clash-news-290306 ↩︎

  2. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/9/why-ethnic-violence-in-indias-manipur-has-been-going-on-for-three-months ↩︎

  3. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Chandrashekhar-Azad-Kashyap/publication/272166094/figure/fig1/AS:295022357434385@1447350219929/Geological-map-of-Manipur-modified-after-7-The-area-is-located-between-N-2350.png ↩︎

  4. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=7fea1c09c438d3ce5dc9dfec1c1feb59ccef7c39 ↩︎

  5. https://www.thesangaiexpress.com/Encyc/2020/8/5/Nuances-of-mining-plan-in-Manipur.html ↩︎ ↩︎

  6. https://dcimanipur.gov.in/en/mineral-based-product/ ↩︎

  7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_Conservation_Act,_1980 ↩︎

  8. https://blog.ipleaders.in/need-know-forest-conservation-act-1980/ ↩︎

  9. https://www.lawinsider.in/judgment/t-n-godavarman-thirumulpad-vs-union-of-india ↩︎

  10. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1942953 ↩︎

  11. https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/supreme-court-panel-against-zoos-jungle-safaris-in-tiger-reserves-3760197 ↩︎

  12. https://www.zeebiz.com/economy-infra/news-new-mines-and-minerals-bill-proposed-to-boost-critical-minerals-exploration-and-mining-247247 ↩︎

  13. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/102238395.cms?from=mdr&utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst ↩︎

Related Pages

No related pages found.