Tripura and how one injustice can have lasting repercussions.

I was reading an article on the BBC News website today that caught my eye. The reservoir of the 10 MW Gumti Hydroelectric (Hydel) Project in India's north-eastern state of Tripura has been the source of heated debate since it was commissioned in 1974. It was built despite fierce opposition from 40,000 indigenous tribesmen whose sole livelihood, their land, was submerged under the reservoir. Furthermore less than a fifth of the inhabitants received compensation due in part to the failure of these tribesmen to evidence ownership of the land. Having no land and no compensation many of the dispossessed have sought refuge in shanty towns along the parameter of the reservoir. Needless to say, the disenfranchised have provided a steady flow of angry young men and women that have swelled the ranks of the the state’s two large rebel groups, who have played a major part in the prolonged civil unrest.

In recent weeks a sharp drop in the water level at the reservoir, which has left it uneconomical, has seen the near-by indigenous people flock to reclaim the emerging lands. The reason for the sharp drop? Principally, the deforestation in the surrounding hills by the primitive agricultural practices by the very same tribesmen who lost their land to the Hydel Project. Classic!