Global indigenous movement calls for halt to evictions of Bangladesh's Garo peoples

By A Representative 

The global civil rights group based in Philippines, International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL), has issued a strong condemnation of what it describes as the ongoing, illegal forced eviction of Garo Indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands in the Madhupur Sal Forest in Tangail District, Bangladesh.

In a statement, the indigenous rights organization accused agents from the Bangladesh Forest Industries Development Corporation (BFIDC), the Rubber Development Authority, and the Ansar Forces of using coercion to carry out the evictions. The move comes amid rising tensions over a government-led project to excavate an artificial lake and develop an eco-park in the region.

According to the IPMSDL, hundreds of Indigenous students and community members rallied on March 6, 2026, at the Amlitala School Field to protest the lake project. Demonstrators warned that they would escalate their movement if the project proceeds without the recognition of Indigenous land rights. 

Local sources and media reports cited by the group confirm that authorities from the Chandpur rubber plantation and the Forest Department conducted eviction operations without prior notice, falsely claiming the lands are state-owned. The IPMSDL alleges these actions are deliberate attempts to dispossess Indigenous peoples from over 8,000 hectares of their ancestral Sal forest and agricultural land.

The Madhupur Sal Forest has been home to the Garo, Koch, and Barman communities for centuries. The organization emphasized that the forest is not only a source of livelihood but is central to Indigenous culture, spirituality, and identity. Tensions over land tenure have intensified since large areas of Madhupur were declared a Reserve Forest and National Park under the Forest Act of 1927 and the Wild Life Protection Order of 1973. Despite this legal protection, the IPMSDL notes that government-led commercial projects—including rubber plantations, banana and pineapple monocultures, and lake excavation—have steadily reduced forest cover and biodiversity. The group highlighted that Indigenous communities have protested these encroachments since at least the 1980s, pointing to past violence, including the shooting deaths of two Garo protestors by police and forest guards in 2004, and the death of a Garo leader in custody in 2007.

The current lake excavation project is being criticized for destroying Sal forests and threatening the region's biodiversity, which includes tigers, bears, deer, Hanuman langurs, and hundreds of bird species. “When Indigenous peoples are forcibly removed from their lands, it is not only a human rights violation but an assault on the very survival of their culture, language, and traditions,” said Beverly Longid, IPMSDL co-convener. She added, “These forests and biodiversity hotspots remain intact not by chance, but because Indigenous Peoples have protected them for generations. Yet those same guardians are treated as criminals — hunted, killed, displaced.”

The IPMSDL statement argues that many projects, including those funded by international bodies like the World Bank in the past, are masked as biodiversity “conservation” projects while facilitating land grabs for ecotourism and industrial development. The group noted that the land rights of Indigenous peoples in Bangladesh’s plain lands remain largely unrecognized, leading to demands for a separate land commission to resolve historical injustices.

The organization framed the situation in Bangladesh as part of a global pattern in which Indigenous lands are violently taken for “development” or “conservation.” The statement cited similar cases in West Papua, the Philippines, Brazil, and Kenya, where Indigenous communities face forced evictions, threats from security forces, and displacement to make way for large-scale agricultural, infrastructure, and tourism projects.

The IPMSDL called on the Government of Bangladesh to immediately halt all eviction activities in Madhupur and withdraw the lake excavation project. The group also urged a thorough, independent investigation into incidents of unlawful destruction of crops and forests, including the recent cutting of banana plantations, and demanded adequate compensation for affected families. Furthermore, the organization called for the repeal of the Forest Act of 1927 and any new forest legislation that contributes to conflict, discrimination, and dispossession of forest-dependent communities.

“With this trend, thousands of Indigenous Peoples and forest-dependent communities are forcibly displaced everyday. And its only justification is this imperialist model of profit-driven development, and colonial conservation, false ‘green,’ and ‘climate solutions,’” Longid emphasized.