"Manufactured Report": Manipur's Top Forest Official Slams Editors' Guild

Manipur's top forest officer has written to the state government denying allegations made by a fact-finding team of the Editors' Guild of India (EGI) that the N Biren Singh government did not follow due procedure in declaring parts of hills as "reserved" and "protected" forests.

Principal Chief Conservator of Forests SS Chhabra in a seven-page letter to the Manipur government said the allegations against the forest department in the report - published by the three-member, crowdfunded EGI team after staying in Manipur for four days - are "wrong" and "unverified", and they have "led to misinformation... and tarnished the reputation of the forest department." NDTV has seen a copy of the letter.

The EGI in the report released on Saturday last alleged the BJP government in Manipur branded all Kuki tribes as "illegal immigrants" after some 4,000 refugees fleeing the military coup in neighbouring Myanmar crossed into Manipur. The EGI report said evictions from and demolitions in "forest areas were carried out only in non-Naga inhabited areas," which led the Kukis to suspect they were being "singled out".

In the letter, which includes a point-by-point rebuttal of the allegations, the top forest officer said no reserved or protected forest has been declared during the tenure of the current government, and so the claim by the EGI team "that the declaration of new reserved forests and protected forests in the hills by the N Biren Singh government, cancellation of land ownership documents in these areas, and eviction drive led to confrontation between the state authorities and the Kuki community is without any basis."

Citing the forest department's data, Mr Chhabra in the letter to the Additional Chief Secretary of forests and environment said the allegation that Kukis were "singled out" was a blatant lie, as many people from other communities who have been living illegally in reserved and protected forests had been removed too.

From October 2015 to April 2023, the forest department has removed 413 encroachers from reserved and protected forests across the state - 143 Meiteis, 137 Meitei Pangals, 59 Kukis (including 21 unoccupied huts in Kanglatombi-Kangpokpi reserved forest), 38 Nagas, and 36 Nepalis.

"... Since 2015 till date, no encroacher has been evicted from reserved and protected forests in Churachandpur and Tengnoupal districts. The report of the EGI that the demolition drive began in Kangpokpi district, a Kuki-dominated area, extended by 2023 to Churachandpur and Tengnoupal districts, which is a preponderance of Kuki-Zo community, is manufactured and without any basis," the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests said in the letter.

The forest department's letter comes amid criticism over the filing of two police cases against the three members of the EGI fact-finding team and the EGI chief by two Imphal residents, one of whom is a social worker.

The EGI and other journalist groups have said the government should respond to the allegations instead of supporting police cases. The EGI has alleged the Manipur government is trying to silence its critics with the first information reports (FIRs), and the Supreme Court has told the authorities not to take any coercive action against the EGI team named in the FIRs till Monday.

Sorokhaibam Thoudam Sangita, who filed the second FIR, yesterday requested for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to take over the case. The first FIR was filed by social worker N Sarat Singh.

Ms Sangita alleged the EGI is trying to divert the issue and escape from answering with evidence all the allegations the three-member team had made against the Meitei community, who are a majority in the valley areas of Manipur. "This issue is very serious. The team was crowdfunded too. We want to know who all donated to them for the Manipur visit. The CBI should take this case and go into the root of the case," Ms Sangita said.

The three journalists - Seema Guha, Sanjay Kapoor, and Bharat Bhushan - came to Manipur on a crowdfunded visit to prepare the report. The EGI on July 26 posted on X, asking for donation to fund "a fact-finding mission to document media's coverage of the Manipur ethnic clashes."