UPSC Articles
Protest Against Resettlement of Bru tribals
Part of: GS Prelims and GS-I – Society & GS-II – Policies and Interventions
In news
- Recently, parts of north Tripura witnessed violent protests over the proposed resettlement of Bru tribals.
Key takeaways
- In January 2020, a quadrilateral agreement was signed by the Centre, the two state governments and Bru representatives to allow Brus to permanently settle in Tripura.
- The state has planned 12 resettlement spots across six districts with 300 families each in Tripura.
- The Centre has announced a special development project with funding of Rs. 600 crore.
- This agreement led to protests from Bengali and Mizo groups in Tripura.
- They claim that settling thousands of migrants permanently in North Tripura district of Kanchanpur would lead to demographic imbalance, exert pressure on local resources and potentially lead to law and order problems.
- It was also alleged that Bengali and Mizo families from Jampui Hill range, who fled due to atrocities by Brus, were yet to be resettled two decades on.
Important value addition
Bru
- Bru or Reang is a community indigenous to Northeast India.
- It lives mostly in Tripura, Mizoram and Assam.
- In Tripura, they are recognised as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group.
- In Mizoram, they have been targeted by groups that do not consider them indigenous to the state.
- In 1997, following ethnic clashes, nearly 37,000 Brus fled Mizoram and were accommodated in relief camps in Tripura.
- Since then, 5,000 have returned to Mizoram, while 32,000 still live in six relief camps in North Tripura.
