It is quite amusing when a Supreme Court Judge appeals ‘all sections of people to view the process of mediation from different perspective and with a humane angle.’ Madan B Lokur was opining that North Eastern states have the “potential to be litigation-free states as it is an area where people settle disputes in the traditional way of mediation.” However, when comes to border dispute, the challenge before us is that in the Northeast region new border dispute cases keep sprouting. Litigation suits in certain cases but its relevance is questioned in many areas. In those cases marred by violence and mired in serious tribal politics the application of the old formats will not yield any effect unless fresh spaces are created to suit them.To address this scene, sharing the opinion of Madan B Lokur Border, we must emphasis the “humane angle” perspective to deal disputes such as the border quagmires rampant in the Northeast region. Today, border disputes among the North Eastern states are, to a great extent, responsible for creating differences between two groups of people across the borders or misunderstanding between two neighbouring governments. To resolve these disputes a herculean efforts from the concerned parties are required where a competent authority has to facilitate. The fast ballooning population size shrinks land and the tussle for little available dwelling place becomes the bone of contention between groups. Border disputes of Assam-Nagaland, Meghalaya-Assam, Manipur-Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh-Assam and Mizoram-Assam are explosive in nature. The most vocal of the disputes at the moment is that of Nagaland-Assam. Manipur and Nagaland dispute over Dzukou Valley is also another concern which is yet to be resolved. Clashes of villagers from both the sides have been happening from time to time. The Nagaland-Assam border disputes in several areas have also been a cause for worry. Burning of houses and even killing incidents have been occurring with no solution in sight. Meghalaya-Assam border dispute at Langpih is again the subject of a long-running dispute between the government of Meghalaya and that of Assam state. Meanwhile, all available resources should be used to form new spaces for a reasoning mind and humane approach to prevail.
