In a memorandum submitted to Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla, the Rongmei Naga Council, Liangmai Naga Council, Zeme Naga Council, and Inpui Naga Union said Manipur has in recent years witnessed a “growing influx of illegal migrants” from Myanmar as well as from neighbouring Indian states where the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise is underway. Rongmei, Liangmai, Zeme, and Inpui tribes are concentrated in Tamenglong, Noney, and Kangpokpi districts.

“The continuous inflow has strained local resources and now poses a serious threat to the cultural identity, economic stability, and traditional livelihoods of native indigenous communities in Manipur,” the memorandum stated.

It said the situation was “particularly critical” along major highways where “new settlements have mushroomed without check.” They alleged that several of these settlements are linked to large-scale deforestation for illicit poppy cultivation and are “protected by well-armed militant groups.”

“These groups survive through illegal taxation of commercial vehicles on national highways and by engaging in widespread poppy plantation on land belonging to the indigenous Naga people,” the organisations claimed.

They further alleged that such groups are now “claiming ancestral Naga lands as their own and demanding a separate administration.” Roads were being built without community consent to connect these settlements through inter-village routes that pass through Naga areas, the memorandum said.