Bhubaneswar: Although efforts to restore peace continue, tensions persist in Odisha’s Malkangiri district, which shares borders with Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. The unrest follows clashes between local tribals and Bengali settlers whose ancestors inhabited the area in 1958 under the Dandakaranya project.

The recent violence was triggered by the discovery of the headless body of 51-year-old Lake Padiami, a Koya tribal woman, from Rakhelguda village near the Potteru river on December 4. The infuriated tribals, who apparently identified the body from the clothes and jewellery the woman was wearing, attacked MV-26 village on December 7. MV-26, which was created under the Dandakaranya project, is inhabited by Bengalis, and the tribals were convinced that the people from the village were involved in the widow's killing.

According to sources, around 163 houses in the village were damaged by the rampaging mob of tribals wielding sticks and bows and arrows. There were also allegations of property of Bengali settlers being looted, prompting the district administration to shut down internet services in the district for 24 hours on December 8 and impose prohibitory orders in the two villages. Over 1,000 Bengali settlers fled MV-26 in the wake of the attack.

Police arrested Subha Ranjan Mandal, a Bengali settler, in connection with the murder, which is allegedly related to a property dispute. However, the arrest failed to pacify the tribals, who accused the settlers of indulging in criminal activities and, in some cases, staying in the district without valid documents. With anti-settler feelings running high, the ban on internet services, initially imposed on the evening of December 8, was extended on December 10 for another 24 hours. This latest extension followed the recovery of the murdered woman's severed head, found about 15 km away from where her decapitated body had been discovered.

Sources said the woman had been missing since December 1, but her family members only lodged a missing person report on December 3 after a long and futile search. After the body was found, both the police and her relatives tried to locate the severed head without success. On December 9, her mortal remains were buried in tune with the Koya tribal traditions, with her relatives making a head out of clay and fitting it onto the body before laying her to rest.

Though both Malkangiri collector Somesh Kumar Upadhyaya and superintendent of police Vinodh Patil asserted that the situation was fully under control and that leaders of both the tribal community and Bengali settlers were meeting to discuss peace, sources indicated that discontent continues to simmer against the settlers who were allotted land by the government under the Dandakaranya Project.

Under the Dandakaranya Project, the Union government settled Bengali refugees from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in the present Malkangiri district of Odisha in 1958. The district was then part of the undivided Koraput district. The settlers, whose habitations were allotted numbers prefixed with MV (short for Malkangiri Village), received land for building houses and for cultivation.

However, this triggered resentment among local tribals, the majority of whom belong to the Koya community. Other tribal groups like Gadaba, Diyadi, and Bonda were also upset by the development, but the anger against the settlers has been most pronounced among the Koyas. Political analyst Shashi Kant Mishra feels that tribals of the undivided Koraput district, including Malkangiri, have been unhappy with successive governments for failing to rehabilitate them properly following their displacement by various large and small projects like the Upper Kolab and Balimela dam projects.

“Even now, they are facing a major threat from the Polavaram multi-purpose project coming up in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. The project threatens to inundate a big area under the Mottu tehsil of Malkangiri, but protests by the Odisha government have failed to stop the project, which continues with central support. Hence, their anger against the government and anyone who they perceive as a threat to their natural right on land in Malkangiri can be understood,” said Mishra.

The Maoists, who have been quite active in Malkangiri and are known to be sympathetic towards the local tribals, have also killed Bengalis in the past, branding them either as tribal exploiters or police informers. In 2020, the radicals hacked to death Sukumar Mandal, a powerful Bengali contractor, accusing him of being corrupt. Between 2012 and 2013, the ultras killed two other Bengalis – Subal Sil and Gobinda Saha – who they perceived to be anti-tribal and who had refused to follow the militants' dictates.

Tribal resentment against the Bengali settlers also stems from the fact that while the settlers prospered rather quickly and rose up the social and political ladder, the majority of tribals continue to be poor and struggle to make their mark in society. One of the best examples of the rise of Bengali settlers is former minister Arabinda Dhali, who was first elected to the Odisha assembly from Malkangiri in a by-election in 1992. A five-time MLA, Dhali also served as a minister in the Biju Janata Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJD-BJP) coalition government led by Naveen Patnaik.

The settlers, who migrated from Bangladesh, live in 213 villages of Malkangiri district and 64 villages in Nabarangpur district – both part of the erstwhile undivided Koraput district – after acquiring Indian citizenship in the early 1970s. They enjoy considerable political clout, and in constituencies like Malkangiri and Nabarangpur, where they constitute a major chunk of the population, they remain the deciding factor in the elections.

In contrast, even though many tribals from Malkangiri and surrounding areas have joined politics and won elections, the tribal community has been unable to leverage their political and demographic clout to their advantage, perhaps due to a lack of education and resources. “Hence, resentment against the settlers continues to surface from time to time,” said Mishra.

While BJD MLA and former minister Ranendra Pratap Swain expressed concern over the violence in Malkangiri, calling for immediate action to bring the situation under control, Congress MLA from Chitrakonda Mangu Khilla slammed the government for failing to protect the state's womenfolk. “We have raised the issue several times and urged them to keep the law and order situation under check. But they have failed repeatedly,” said the tribal MLA.

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