More than 37,500 Bru tribal refugees rehabilitated in Tripura: Union Home Ministry

Rehabilitation of Bru tribals in Tripura after ethnic violence, with financial assistance and development works, under Union Home Ministry.

“More than 37,500 Bru tribals, who were affected by the ethnic violence in Mizoram in the late 1990s and 2009, have been rehabilitated in Tripura at a cost of ₹821 crore provided by the Union Home Ministry,” officials said in Tripura’s Ambassa. Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited some of these refugees in Tripura, on Sunday (December 22, 2024.)

“On January 16, 2020, a quadripartite agreement was signed among the Governments of India, Tripura, Mizoram and representatives of Bru organisations for the permanent rehabilitation of Bru migrants in Tripura,” officials said.

Who are the Brus, and what are the implications of settling them in Tripura?

While about 70% of the Bru (Reang) tribals are Hindu, the remaining are Christians. Bru migrants from three districts of Mizoram — Mamit, Lunglei and Kolasib districts — moved to the North Tripura district in 1997, 1998 and 2009 due to serious ethnic violence in Mizoram between Bru and Mizo communities.

A total of 12 locations have been identified in Tripura for establishing resettlement colonies for Bru tribals out of which nine locations are in forest land and three locations are on government land. These 12-selected locations are in four districts of North Tripura, Dhalai, Gomati and South Tripura. “A total of 754 acres of land has been made available to resettle these families. Settlement works are going on in these 12 identified locations,” officials said.

“The final figure for families for rehabilitation under the agreement stands at 6,935 with population of 37,584,” the officials said.

Common development works such as laying of power lines, brick soling of internal roads, installation of deep tubewells for providing drinking water, building power infrastructure, connectivity to households, installation of solar street lights, opening of new fair price shops, anganwadi centres, schools and health sub-centres have been almost completed in 11 locations.