- DIMAPUR — The Tsurangkong Senso Senden (TSS) in
Mokokchung district has prohibited the extraction of oil and natural resources
in its area without the consent of “ancestral traditional landowners of the Ao
Naga community.”
- In a statement issued on Saturday, the TSS asserted that
Tsurangkong Range bordering Assam is inhabited by the Ao Naga community of
Mokokchung district, who are the traditional landowners.
- “Recently it has come to our notice that the government of
Assam, abetted by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate
Change, is trying to allot our traditional ancestral land to Vedanta for
exploration and drilling of oil without our knowledge and consent,” read the
statement.
- It reminded that on November 15, 2024, the border magistrate,
district forest officer of Assam, officials from the Union Ministry of
Environment, Forest & Climate Change, and Vedanta were turned away from its
area after they had come for “inspection of our area without our knowledge and
consent for the purpose of exploration and drilling of oil.”
- “Therefore, in Tsurangkong Range, without the knowledge,
consent, and valid agreement with the ancestral traditional landowners of the
Ao Naga community, no one will be allowed to explore, drill oil, and extract
natural resources,” it stated.
- The statement comes in the backdrop of Deputy Chief Minister
TR Zeliang’s recent comment to the media that Naga villagers must first assert
their land ownership before the Nagaland government steps in to the issue of
oil extraction by Assam in disputed border areas.
Also read: Oil extraction: Deputy Chief Minister TR Zeliang asks Naga landowners to assert ownership
