the story So Far: There has been a sharp reaction to a tripartite agreement between the Centre, Assam and Nagaland governments on June 11 to resume oil and gas exploration along the disputed 512-km border between the two states. In the ceasefire agreement, extremist organizations and traditional tribe-based organizations said New Delhi should first ensure a dignified resolution of the “India-Naga political issue” and resolve the border issue before giving shape to the agreement.
What is the tripartite agreement about?
Petroleum experts believe that Nagaland is estimated to have 600 million tonnes of oil and natural gas reserves, which has the potential to increase India’s onshore oil production by 75%. Exploration in the state, especially along its resource-rich border with Assam, was halted in the 1990s due to insurgency and opposition from local organisations.
On June 11, a tripartite agreement was reached to resume oil and gas exploration along the 512 km long border shared by the two states. Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri thanked Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Nagaland counterpart Nephew Rio for “rising above differences” to chart the way forward for the region and the country. This was a reference to the decades-old bitter border dispute between the two states and an acknowledgment that the discovery of oil and gas in about 1,000 sq km of the Disputed Area Belt (DAB) along the Assam-Nagaland border (Oil India Ltd said its exploration area in Nagaland is 3,000 sq km) was important for India to reduce imports.
The country imports crude oil and natural gas to meet more than 88% and 50% of its domestic requirements respectively. Underscoring the importance of the DAB, Mr Puri said oil and gas production in Nagaland will power the next chapter of India’s energy journey from the North-East, after 31 years which gave birth to the oil industry in the country.
He also said Nagaland’s significant hydrocarbon potential in the Naga-Shupen belt of the Assam-Arakan Basin will boost production in Assam, which accounts for about 22% of India’s crude oil reserves and about 15% of the country’s natural gas reserves. However, Nagaland-based organizations do not share his optimism.
Why are these organizations opposing exploration?
One of the first to react to the tripartite agreement was the Working Committee of Naga National Political Groups (WC-NNPGs), a group of seven extremist organisations, which had signed the agreed position with the Center in November 2017. The group said the agreed position was intended to pave the way for a permanent solution to the “India-Naga political issue”.
It reminded the Center of a clause in the agreed position, which states that Nagaland Tatar Hohos (members of the national parliament) will make laws on ownership and transfer of land and its resources, including mines, minerals, oil and natural gas, while the governments of India and Nagaland will jointly handle radioactive elements that have national security relevance and implications.
WC-NNPG said, “This implies the Government of Nagaland after the settlement, and until the India-Naga political agreement is officially signed on the table, any attempt to explore natural resources anywhere in the Naga areas is illegal and against the agreed principles.”
On the other hand, organizations of Lotha and Konyak Nagas focused on the border dispute and demanded clarity on DAB and other border issues to protect the territorial integrity of Nagaland. Konyak Union also urged the government to seek consent of land owners before finalizing the decision on exploration to address concerns, respect rights and ensure a fair, transparent and acceptable outcome for all stakeholders.
Various organisations, including the Nagaland Tribal Council, had expressed a similar reaction in April 2023 when Mr Sarma and Mr Rio agreed in principle to facilitate oil and gas exploration along the disputed inter-state border.
What is the Indo-Naga political issue?
It refers to the Centre’s peace process with Naga extremist groups in Nagaland and Naga-inhabited areas in other northeastern states, primarily Manipur. Naga nationalism, which had erupted when the British rulers made the Naga Hills a part of Assam in 1866, took formal form in 1929, when the Naga Club submitted a memorandum to the Simon Commission, demanding that the Nagas should be allowed to decide their own future.
In June 1947, the Governor of Assam signed a nine-point agreement with the Naga National Council (NNC), a fundamental political organization formed to unite the Naga tribes and advocate Naga independence. The agreement granted judicial, executive and legislative autonomy to the Naga Hills region, but with a disputed clause requiring renegotiation or extension after ten years.
While the NNC interpreted this as an implicit path to sovereignty, New Delhi saw it as a routine renegotiation within the Indian Union. Demanding full sovereignty, the NNC began an armed movement in the 1950s. The Indian government responded by invoking the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 to curb the insurgency.
In 1960, New Delhi signed the Sixteen-Point Pact with the Naga moderates, resulting in the creation of Nagaland as a full-fledged state within the Indian Union in December 1963. However, this agreement failed to stop the separatist movement.
The Center signed another agreement with the NNC, the 1975 Shillong Accord, but a faction rejected it and formed the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) in January 1980.
It split into the NSCN (IM) led by Isak Chishi Svu and Manipur-born Thuingleng Muivah and the NSCN (K) led by Myanmar-based SS Khaplang. The latter broke into several groups, most of which were led by Nagaland-based Nagas.
The NSCN (IM) declared a ceasefire with the Indian Armed Forces in July 1997 and signed the Framework Agreement in August 2015. The NSCN(K) declared a ceasefire in April 2001 but unilaterally canceled it in March 2015. Its breakaway factions signed the agreed position. Both the Framework Agreement and the Agreed Positions await final resolution.
What is the reason for Assam-Nagaland border dispute?
The insurgency in Nagaland perpetuates the border dispute stemming from the colonial-era demarcation in November 1925, based on which Nagaland was carved out of Assam as India’s 16th state on December 1, 1963.
Assam stood on the 1925-determined border, but Nagaland claimed that historically Naga areas were arbitrarily transferred to Assam. The disagreement led to border skirmishes in 1965 and six times thereafter – the last incident in 2015 – in which at least 157 people lost their lives.
According to the Assam government, Nagaland has encroached upon 59,490 hectares of its land in Golaghat, Jorhat, Karbi Anglong and Sivasagar districts. To resolve this dispute, the Center constituted the KVK Sundaram Committee in 1971 to recommend a solution to the border dispute.
This resulted in four interim agreements to maintain the status quo on the border and in 1979 the deployment of the Central Reserve Police Force as a neutral unit in the buffer zone between the two states. That year, the range was divided into six sectors—A, B, C, D, E and F—for administrative purposes.
Another committee was formed in 1985 under the chairmanship of BC Mathur (later SK Shastri) to investigate the border conflict, but Nagaland rejected its report in 1987, allegedly because of its pro-Assam leanings. Assam partially resolved its border disputes with Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh through agreements in March 2022 and April 2023 respectively; The complex dispute with Nagaland awaits resolution.
Why was oil exploration stopped in Nagaland?
In 1973, the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) obtained an exploration license from the Ministry of Petroleum to explore oil and natural gas in the community-owned Changpang and Tsori fields of Wokha district of Nagaland. ONGC allegedly extracted more than the permitted amount of crude oil and natural gas per day without informing the community or land owners.
Reports state that the exploration head extracted 1.04 million tons of oil from March 1991 to May 1994. Following protests by Naga individuals and organizations, the Nagaland government withdrew the exploration permit granted to ONGC in May 1994.
Between 2006 and 2007, the Center again allocated oil blocks in Nagaland to ONGC, which could not proceed due to community opposition. In 2009, the Government of Nagaland suspended all oil-related activities and canceled previous exploration and mining leases.
It formed a Cabinet sub-committee to work on modalities to regulate oil and natural gas exploration, but complications arose because of the Oil Fields Regulation and Development Act, 1948, and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Rules, 1959, which authorized the Center to develop and regulate hydrocarbon reserves across the country and made the states holding the reserves eligible for royalties decided by the Centre.
Although Article 371A of the Constitution of India guarantees that no central law on land and its resources applies to Nagaland unless ratified by the Assembly, the Nagaland government passed a resolution in July 2010 that allowed it to develop petroleum reserves in the state, acquire mineralized areas, set land compensation rates and landowners’ share in royalties, and issue environmental and forest clearance for projects.
In 2012, the government introduced the Nagaland Petroleum and Natural Gas (NPNG) Regulations. A section of Nagas opposed the NPNG because of its poor profit-sharing mechanism.
More than a decade later, the Nagaland government embraced the idea of ​​resuming oil exploration to boost its economy, recover lost royalties and support national energy security. The state government has estimated an annual loss of over ₹1,825 crore in oil royalties due to non-operation of oil fields. It signed a tripartite agreement to reform state finances
