Arkid Pohshyad was scared hearing the growl of an approaching car around midnight one night last month. The 10-year-old ran to warn his mother. “Tell father to hide deeper in the forest. The police are coming.”
Arkid’s Khasia neighbourhood has been living in fear of eviction since end May. He was afraid that the police would arrest his father in a murder case filed by the nearby Nahar Tea Garden management. They had mentioned “unidentified Khasia people” immediately putting them under the radar.
The local Khasia chief, however, says there is nothing to it. “It was only to harass us.”
Two adjacent Khasia villages (Punji) of Moulvibazar with 79 families have been gripped with such fear that the sound of approaching engines sends a chill down their spines.
“My son was a residential student of class IV at Classic Ideal School in Sreemangal. But he had to come back as we feared he might be kidnapped. I do not want to lose my son,” said Arkid’s mother Asrin Pohshyad.
The tension began on the morning of May 30. It was around 11am when about 200 armed tea garden workers and outsiders led by Nahar Tea Garden Manager Pijush Kanti Bhattacharya marched towards the two punjis in an apparent attempt to grab the Khasia lands.
At least 20 Khasia villagers including women were seriously injured in the ensuing skirmish. One Nitai Tanti, 45, a casual labourer who was injured, died in a hospital two days later.
Pijush lodged a murder cases naming 18 and 160 unidentified Khasia people. The garden manager alleged that Nitai had died from a gunshot fired by the Khasia chief. But the autopsy report, seen by this correspondent, concluded that his death was due to a strong blow to the back of the head.
The Khasias also wanted to lodge a complaint having lost many betel leaf plants from the attack. But the police did not let them. Instead the Khasias had to be content with just a general diary.
Pijush’s assistant manager, Mizanur Rahman, filed the second case on August 30 accusing 28 villagers of burglary, use of illegal firearms, and destruction of tea estate property.
“The 28 villagers included a dead man, a physically handicapped person and another who was already in police custody. How can a physically challenged man ruin their tea garden?” wondered Dibarmin Potam, the local Khasia chief.
Pijush did not have an answer when asked how a deceased or a physically-challenged man could be involved in vandalising a tea garden.
Mizanur Rahman lodged another “false” case with the Sreemangal police against the Khasia villagers on September 2.
The Khasias allege that tea garden officials along with miscreants regularly threaten them and vandalise their betel vines – the lifeline of the matriarchal indigenous community – to destroy their main source of income.
Each vine takes three to four years to mature after which it yields betel leaves for the following 10-12 years.
“We are Bangladeshi citizens and have been living on this land for long. But the garden authorities claim to be the owners,” Dibarmin said alleging that they were not even allowed to use the road that runs by the Nahar Tea Garden after dusk.
Pijush denied barring the Khasias from using the road beside the garden. “Everyone is allowed to use the road. But we cannot allow criminals.”
Asked whether all 700 Khasias living in the villages were criminals, Pijush remained silent.
The tea garden authorities sold 4,000 trees of the Khasia villages to a local trader named Selim Uddin in September 2008. The forest and environment ministry put a stop to felling trees following protests by the Khasia people.
But when the same ministry on June 15 this year approved cutting down “old and harmful” trees, Selim felled 200 trees most of which had betel vines on them.
Nahar Tea Garden was set up in 1960 on 350 hectares. The Khasia community leased out 80 hectares and established the Aslom Punji. Later more people settled in what is now the Kylin Punji.
The Khasia have been paying the tea garden authorities Tk25,000 as yearly rent.
However, the garden authorities reportedly forced the Khasias to abandon eight hectares every year to expand the garden.
“The media is favouring the Khasias. They are not publishing the truth that the government ordered us to expand the tea garden by 2.5% every year,” Pijush Kanti told the Dhaka Tribune. “The land belongs to the tea estate, not the indigenous people who are occupying it. We will expand our garden by hook or by crook.”
A civic group comprising activists, journalists and researchers visited the Khasia dwellings from November 15 to 16.
Pavel Partha, a researcher who was on the team, said the tea garden authorities were moving in the wrong direction denying the Khasia their rights. “The problem is deepening as the corporate tea business is expanding. The rising demand for tea is another reason why such conflicts have been on the rise.”
