The Jharkhand High Court on Tuesday directed the state’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-led government to identify “illegal Bangladeshi immigrants” living in the Santhal Pargana region, reported Live Law.

The region comprises six districts: Godda, Deoghar, Dumka, Jamtara, Sahibganj and Pakur.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad and Justice Arun Kumar Rai issued the directive on a public interest litigation filed by activist Daniel Danish. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for August 22.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has in recent weeks stoked a debate over alleged demographic changes in Jharkhand by persistently alleging “Bangladeshi infiltration” in the state.

Last month, Union home minister Amit Shah said at a rally in Ranchi that if the BJP came to power in Jharkhand it would release a white paper on the state’s demographics. Elections to the Jharkhand Assembly are due to be held between November and December.

The Loktantra Bachao Abhiyan, an Adivasi rights group, had issued a statement on July 29 refuting allegations of demographic changes in Jharkhand due to undocumented migrants from Bangladesh.

“Recently, BJP and its prominent leaders are continuously giving statements that large number of Bangladeshi infiltrators are settling in Jharkhand, Adivasi population is decreasing, Adivasi girls are being married to infiltrators, their land is being grabbed, love jihad, land jihad etc.,” the statement said.

“It is being said that…population of Adivasis in Santhal Pargana has decreased by 16% and that of Muslims has increased by 13%,” the group added. “MP Nishikant Dubey even gave a statement in the Parliament that in 2000, the Adivasi population in Santhal Pargana was 36% and now it is only 26% and Bangladeshi infiltration [Muslims] are responsible for this.”

“All these claims are beyond fact,” the group emphasised.

The High Court on Tuesday directed Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s government to make comprehensive efforts to differentiate between the Santhal Pargana’s native residents and “illegal immigrants”. It said that essential documents such as ration cards, Aadhaar cards and voter ID cards should only be issued to persons only after a thorough verification.

The court took note of a document submitted by the petitioner claiming that the proportion of Adivasis in the population of Santhal Pargana had “decreased drastically”, from 44.67% in 1951 to 28.11% in 2011.

On the other hand, the area’s Muslim population had “increased manifold” from 9.44% in 1951 to 22.73% in 2011, according to petitioner.

The bench described illegal immigration as a “dangerous proposition” and a major concern for both the state and Union governments. The court emphasised the urgency of addressing the issue to prevent further demographic and social imbalance.

However, as the Loktantra Bachao Abhiyan had pointed out on July 29, there are other reasons for the observed decline in the state’s Adivasi population.

“Sizeable decline in the proportion of Adivasis occurred between 1951 and 1991,” the group said. “During this period, a large number of non-Adivasis came to Jharkhand from the surrounding states, especially in the cities and areas of mining and industries. For example, the proportion of Adivasis in Ranchi declined from 53.2% in 1961 to 43.6% in 1991.”

The second reason, the group said, is the displacement and lack of employment for Adivasis in Jharkhand, which has forced them “to migrate in lakhs for decades”. This has a direct impact on their population growth rate.

A third reason, the group said, is that “the population growth rate of Adivasis has been lower than other non-tribal groups for decades”. The death rate of Adivasis is higher than in other communities “due to inadequate nutrition, inadequate health system and economic constraints”.

On Tuesday, BJP MP from Godda Nishikant Dubey said that the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act was being flagrantly violated by “Bangladeshi infiltrators exploiting the situation”, reported The Hindu.

“If BJP forms the government in Jharkhand, then the illegal occupation of tribal land will be demolished,” Dubey said. “Bangladeshi intruders are taking advantage of the silence of the government. Today the situation has become such that the land of the tribals is being taken and their families are being attacked. Women are being beaten up and no action is taken against such incidents.”

He demanded that the authorities conduct a door-to-door survey to determine how “illegal individuals” were obtaining electricity and gas connections.

Dubey warned that if the survey is not conducted, Adivasis could face “displacement” and suffer a fate similar to that of the Indigenous groups of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, who he claimed have disappeared.

On July 25, Dubey said that a Union territory should be formed by carving out Malda and Murshidabad districts from West Bengal, Araria, Kishanganj and Katihar districts from Bihar and Santhal Parganas region of Jharkhand to address the issue of alleged illegal immigration.

The Adivasi rights group, on the other hand, has said that the “BJP only wants to create religious communalism and polarisation by presenting wrong figures”, instead of addressing the root causes of the decline in Adivasi population. “Modi government is also running away from caste census which would make the current situation of communities and different castes clear,” the group had said.