Dimapur, August 5 (MExN): The Zeliangrong community of Dimapur today said to have reaffirmed the decision to protect Ntangki National Park from “land encroachers.”
The Zeliangrong Hoho of Dimapur and all its frontal units, students and youth and member public met in a general meeting on July 31 to “discuss many important issues relating to our people.”
The meeting reiterated to stand by the decision of the Zeliangrong people to protect Ntangki National Park from land encroachers at any cost, the hoho said today in a note.
The community also appreciated the ‘bold step’ taken by the state government, the Naga Hoho and the entire Naga people to evict all land encroachers from the park in the larger interest of the Naga people.
Among other issues, the community expressed concern at the turmoil in Assam’s North Cachar Hills. The community noted that more than fifty innocent Naga lives have been lost, hundred injured and thousands rendered homeless and more than 300 houses in eight Zeliangrong villages by the Dimasa militant groups DHD (J) and DHD (Nunsia) “for their vested interest.”
The root cause of the turmoil originated from the proposal to change the district into a so-called “Dima Hasao Raji” (Dimasa kingdom), which still is unacceptable to Nagas and non-Dimasa in the region.
The Zeliangrong Nagas are the first inhabitants of NC Hills, the hoho stated, orally stated to be in the 13th Century.
The hoho quoted V. Elwin’s “Nagas in the 19th Century” that the Nagas were the “earliest inhabitants of the soil…” and the Nagas are the second in majority in the district. The Dimasa migrated when they fled Dimapur from the Ahom king to Takluoram (said to be a Zeme area now known as Maibang) in the 15th century.
The hoho also said the Nagas fought with the Ahoms and helped the Dimasa Kachari. The hoho quoted JD Baveja in his “New Horizons of North East” that “the Nagas are great warriors... fought the invading Ahoms.”
The baudi has called upon the Dimasa to ‘respect the Naga traditional hospitality’ and urge all parties to shun violence in keeping with the age-old traditional relations between the Naga and Dimasa who had lived and co-existed peacefully together for ages.
The meeting also decided to reconstitute the Zeliangrong Welfare Organisation of Dimapur originally formed in 1970, the Zeliangrong Public Organisation of Dimapur originally formed in 1995 and the Zeliangrong Hoho Dimapur formed in 2005, into ‘Zeliangrong Baudi
Dimapur.
