When a tribal community says the Chinese PLA has been creeping into their land for years — and the Indian Army calls it baseless — someone has to ask the uncomfortable question. Now, a rights body has.
The standoff between what the Nah Welfare Society (NWS) claims is happening on the ground in Taksing and what the Indian Army insists is not, has drawn a formal intervention. Arunachal Pradesh’s rights body has stepped in to seek clarification from both the Army and the NWS over the sharply conflicting accounts about alleged Chinese PLA activity near the India-China border in the Upper Subansiri district. Two completely different versions of reality are floating around — and neither side appears willing to back down.
What the Community Said
In a letter dated June 26 signed by NWS president Keru Chader, the organisation identified five locations — Oying in the Asaphila area, Paniar in Chujarta, Marpan (Marnafe), Potrang Lake and Tindingtang — as areas now allegedly under Chinese occupation. These aren’t just coordinates on a map. According to the memorandum, the alleged expansion has directly affected traditional grazing lands, hunting grounds, fishing areas and forest produce collection that the Nah community has depended on for generations.
Chader’s words hit hard. The NWS president said the community is “losing our land inch by inch,” urging authorities to intervene even while expressing continued faith in the Indian Armed Forces. The society also submitted photographs claiming to back its allegations, and the memorandum was addressed to the Upper Subansiri Deputy Commissioner, appealing for the issue to be escalated all the way to New Delhi.
What the Army Said
The Indian Army didn’t hesitate. In a brief statement, the Army said it had seen media reports alleging recent encroachment by Chinese PLA and the setting up of camps in Arunachal Pradesh, and called those reports “incorrect and without any basis.” Short, sharp, final — or so it seemed. The Army’s position essentially left the Nah community’s alarm hanging in the air, unacknowledged.
Union Minister Kiren Rijiju also weighed in, explaining that the absence of a clearly defined boundary often leads to differing perceptions between India and China — noting that transgressions from both sides happen due to the lack of demarcation, but that these should not be mistaken for encroachment. It’s a distinction that must feel frustratingly abstract when you can no longer access your ancestral cattle grounds.
Why the Rights Body Stepping In Matters
This is where it gets significant. A rights body asking both parties to explain themselves publicly is not a routine move. The Taksing sector remains one of the most inaccessible border regions along the India-China frontier in Upper Subansiri, making independent verification of what’s actually happening there extremely difficult. No satellite image circulated by either side changes what the local Nah people claim they have witnessed firsthand — losing access to lands they once roamed freely.
The rights body’s intervention signals that the contradiction cannot simply be buried under one side’s denial. Someone has to sit with both the Army’s official position and the NWS’s documented grievance and find an answer that doesn’t dismiss either out of hand.
The Bigger Picture
This story isn’t just about Taksing. It’s about what happens when the people living closest to the border feel the most invisible in the conversation about their own land. Beijing continues to claim Arunachal Pradesh as part of what it calls “South Tibet,” a position India has firmly and consistently rejected, maintaining that the state is an integral and inalienable part of the country. In that geopolitical tug-of-war, tribal communities in remote border circles often end up as the quietest and most vulnerable witnesses to everything that unfolds.
The question a rights body is now asking — who do we believe, and what does the truth actually look like from 15,000 feet above sea level in Upper Subansiri — deserves a real answer. Not a press statement. Not a dismissal. A real answer.
— Naitik
Abotani TV
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