On November 15, officials from the Union environment ministry, the Wildlife Institute of India and the Assam forest department entered the eco-sensitive zone of the Hollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam’s Jorhat district.

They were there to inspect a site, 13 km from the sanctuary, which the Vedanta group proposed to drill to look for potential hydrocarbon reserves.

What the officials did not know was that the site lies in a contested area on the Assam-Nagaland border, called the disputed area belt. Both states have questioned each other’s claims on this terrain for over 60 years.

“We thought it was the Assam reserve forest,” a member of the team told Scroll. “When we approached the ground near the drilling site, we had to enter through a check post and the Nagaland border magistrate was waiting for us.”

Angry residents of Naga villages in Mokokchung district, bordering Jorhat, refused to allow the officials to carry out the inspection without a permission from the village council. “Any developmental activities in this area has to be with the consensus of both the states,” Mokokchung deputy commissioner Thsuvisie Phoji told Scroll.

Moreover, according to Naga customary laws, land does not belong to the state – but is owned collectively by the tribe as well as villages and clans. These laws are protected under Article 371A of the Constitution.

“Even the state government can’t lease the land to any company for drilling without the permission of the villages and land owners,” said Phoji.

Nevertheless, on December 21, the central wildlife panel gave a go-ahead to the Vedanta group to carry out oil and gas exploration at the site.

While environmentalists have objected to the exploratory drilling in an eco-sensitive zone, surprisingly, the decision has not evoked any objection from the Nagaland government.

In fact, a few days later, Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio expressed support for oil exploration in Nagaland as a way to “boost development in the state”.

He claimed that there is now “consensus” between the two neighbouring states on “equal sharing of revenue from the petroleum” extracted from contested areas.

Rio’s statements have stirred a debate within Nagaland, where the ownership of land is invested in the community – and not the state.

“The land neither belongs to the Assam government nor the Nagaland government,” said Moansuksung, president of Tzurangkong Senso Senden, the apex body of Nagas in the area adjoining Hollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary. “It belongs to the people in Nagaland as per Article 371A of the Indian Constitution. So, they have to take permission from us before any kind of drilling.”

He dismissed the question of sharing revenue with Assam. “The drilling spot is on land inhabited by the Nagas, so the Nagas will have exclusive [right over] revenue,” he said.

Office bearers of Ao Senden, the apex organization of the Ao Naga community of Mokokchung district, echoed the views. “We will not allow [drilling] inside Nagaland with the instigation of Assam whatever the company may be,” said Imtipokyim, the general secretary of Ao Senden.

The Hollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary is home to Indian elephants, leopards and the endangered hoolock gibbon, and other primate species.

The Vedanta proposal

The standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife, chaired by Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, approved the proposal by Vedanta Group's Cairn Oil and Gas to carry out oil and gas exploration on about 4.5 hectares of land in the eco-sensitive zone of the Hollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary in its meeting on December 21, according to the minutes of the meeting.

Even earlier, the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Assam had recommended that drilling be allowed in the eco-sensitive zone of the sanctuary based on the findings by the state forest department, which suggested “minimal” environmental impact from exploratory drilling.

The project was considered of “national importance” by the State Board for Wildlife in a meeting held in July 2024. The project involves drilling exploratory wells at a depth of around 4,000 meters, over 4.5 hectares of forest land.

The proposal triggered protests in Jorhat from various organisations and activists. A site inspection committee was then asked to carry out more detailed assessments.

In December, an inspection team led by elephant expert Raman Sukumar submitted a report to the standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife.

“The Hollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary is already facing threats from habitat loss and fragmentation,” the report said. “Over time, the sanctuary has become a ‘forest island’ having lost connectivity with surrounding forest patches or landscapes. Since gibbons are exclusively arboreal animals inhabiting the forested upper canopy, they are particularly sensitive to canopy gaps,” it added.

However, the committee did not go on to oppose exploratory drilling in the area.

Asked about what would happen if the Cairn group hits oil, Sukumar, who is also a member of the National Board for Wildlife, told Scroll: “The company has given an undertaking that in case it is able to strike oil and map the reserves below, it will apply for permissions to tap that oil from a site which is outside the sanctuary and outside the eco-sensitive zone.”

The group has also undertaken that “no hazardous substances would be used in the exploration.”

Despite the Union ministry’s go-ahead, however, the project faces the challenge of the inter-state boundary dispute.

The voices against drilling

The organisation representing the Ao Naga community of Mokokchung district has remained steadfast in its opposition to Vedanta’s plans to drill at the site. Since November, Ao Senden has written letters to the Centre and state government putting its objections on record.

The first letter was written on November 19 to the Union Home Ministry objecting to the drilling, noting “these actions are provocations which may lead to conflict, loss of lives and property”. Because of the difference over boundaries, many violent clashes between Assam and Nagaland have taken place in the past.

In the statement, Ao Senden noted that the team of the National Board of Wildlife along with Assam government officials were “turned away from the spot by the Ao Naga community of the surrounding villages of Mokokchung district”.

“The local villagers protested and made sure that they should go away from the site as the land belongs to them,” Imtipokyim told Scroll. “Without the clearance from the district deputy commissioner or Nagaland government, they can’t roam anywhere.”

On the eve of Republic day, Ao Senden shot off another letter to Nagaland deputy chief minister Yanthungo Patton, asking the Nagaland government to intervene in the alleged encroachment by Assam.

“We urged the Nagaland government to convince the Centre not to approve Vedanta’s plans to drill on our land on the recommendation of the Assam government,” Imtipokyim said. The Centre, he alleged, is playing a “mischievous game”. “The Union government should not abet the Assam government in encroaching on our land.”

Deputy chief minister TR Zeliang also pushed Nagaland to hold firm. He has urged the government to stop any “incursive development” activity by Assam in the disputed area belt.

“Even if they have received clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests, if the land belongs to Nagaland, we should not accept it. We should challenge it in court,” Zeliang said on January 27.

The opposition to oil extraction in Nagaland goes back decades. In the 1970s, the ONGC carried out surveys and eventually set up an oil field in Changpang, a village on the Assam-Nagaland border. But opposition from the powerful militant group, the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah faction), forced them to wind up their operations in 1994. The NSCN-IM argued that ONGC did not have the right to extract natural resources that belonged to Nagas, especially when the benefits would not go to the community.

Changing views

Over the years, however, the political class in Nagaland appears to be pushing for oil exploration in the disputed areas.

In August last year, Nagaland MLA Y Mhonbeno Humtsoe pointed out in the Assembly that the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation operates eight oil fields in the disputed area belt between Assam and Nagaland.

“From 2018 to 2022, a total of 4.9 million barrels was extracted,” he said. “At the then-current rate of crude oil, the calculated royalty amounts to approximately Rs 3,399.79 crores, of which Rs 553 crore were paid to Assam as royalty.”

He suggested that if the governments of Assam and Nagaland agreed to share the royalty proceeds equally, Nagaland would have received Rs 276.50 crore.

Two years ago, Rio had said that Assam and Nagaland have “in principle” decided to sign an MoU on oil exploration so that oil can be extracted and royalties can be shared between the neighbouring states.

“Once it is formalised, there is huge potential for exploration of oil inside Nagaland also,” the Nagaland chief minister had said. “And to move forward as the country needs oil in a big way.”

But Rio’s plans came up against a wall of opposition from NSCN-IM. In May 2023, the militant group declared that “no exploration of oil and natural gas in Naga territories in any form shall be allowed” until an “honourable political settlement” is reached between the Nagas and Government of India.

It is not known whether the MoU has been signed. “There is no paper to indicate that it’s been worked out,” said a BJP leader from Nagaland.

“Most of the people want the oil exploration but the issue is with the NSCN-IM and the tribal bodies like Hoho, which also want a share of royalty,” said a Dimapur-based journalist. “The NSCN- IM remains opposed to the idea of India and Indian entities extracting Naga resources. So, it is very unlikely that the Vedanta project will kick off,” he said.

‘We are rich’

In his statement in January, Rio also batted for a more liberal regime for exploitation of resources.

He went on to say: “It’s not just about petroleum and natural gas, there are huge deposits of rich minerals like cobalt and nickel. The value of these resources runs into billions of dollars. But we don’t understand what our wealth is. We are rich, but we have decided to remain poor.”

Naga anthropologist Dolly Kikon, who is the author of the book Living with Oil & Coal: Resource Politics and Militarization in Northeast India, said Rio’s statement indicated a worrying viewpoint.

“The logic is to sell everything on the ground – forest, minerals, oil – to make money. But who are the beneficiaries of this much discussed royalties?” she asked. “Every single river in Nagaland’s coal mining areas is polluted. The mountains are barren.”