This article was originally written and published by the International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL)

The International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL) strongly condemns the ongoing illegal eviction of the Garo Indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands in the Madhupur Sal Forest, Tangail District, Bangladesh.

Agents from the Bangladesh Forest Industries Development Corporation (BFIDC), the Rubber Development Authority, and the Ansar Forces are again moving with coercion to enforce the illegal eviction.

On March 6, 2026, hundreds of Indigenous students and community members rallied at the Amlitala School Field to protest against a government-led project to excavate an artificial lake and develop an eco-park in Madhupur. Protesters warned that if the project continues without recognition of Indigenous land rights, they will escalate their movement.

Local Indigenous sources and media reports confirm that the authorities of the Chandpur rubber plantation and the Forest Department carried out eviction operations without prior notice, falsely claiming the lands as state-owned. These unlawful actions were deliberate attempts to dispossess Indigenous peoples from over 8,000 hectares of their ancestral Sal forest and agricultural land.

The Madhupur Sal Forest

Madhupur Sal Forest has been home to the indigenous Garo, Koch, and Barman communities for centuries. These forests are not only sources of livelihood but are central to Indigenous culture, spirituality, and identity. Historically, Indigenous Peoples and communities have relied on the forest for collecting medicinal plants, forest potatoes, and other sources of livelihood and food.

Conflicts over land intensified with the declaration of large areas of Madhupur as Reserve Forest and National Park under the Forest Act of 1927 and the Wild Life Protection Order of 1973. 

Despite the forest’s legal protection, government-led commercial projects, including rubber plantations, banana and pineapple monocultures, and lake excavation, have steadily reduced forest cover and biodiversity. The Indigenous communities have long protested these encroachments, which date back to at least the 1980s, with intermittent violence, including the open fire of police and forest guards murdering two Garo protestors of Garo protestors during the National Park Development Project in 2004 and a Garo leader who died while in custody 2007.

Killing Biodiversity, Eroding Indigenous Culture

The current lake excavation project is destroying Sal forests and threatening the region’s rich biodiversity. Tigers, bears, deer, Hanuman langurs, wild boars, and hundreds of bird species have historically depended on these forests. 

Industrial monocultures, artificial lakes, and recreational facilities fragment ecosystems, reduce wildlife habitats, and disrupt water sources essential for both wildlife and human communities.

The eviction violates the rights of the Garo, Barman and Koch Indigenous peoples to free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC). No consultation or consent was sought before starting excavation, putting over 20,000 forest-dependent Indigenous people at risk of losing their land, income, and cultural heritage.

“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,” IPMSDL co-convener Beverly Longid said.

“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,” she added. 

Who’s funding violations?

In 2000, the Forest Department had moved to launch a World Bank-funded forest conservation and ecotourism project or the “Sustainable Forest and Livelihood Project,” according to reports.

Many of the projects initiated and designed by the Government of Bangladesh’s Forest Department and Ministry of Environment as forest conservation and eco‑tourism including building walls, guesthouses and an artificial lake serving local and foreign tourists, and are masked as biodiversity “conservation” projects.

Several environmental and indigenous rights groups have raised concerns about the project as early as 2004, calling on “funding agencies” to review their support due to social and ecological impacts.

To resolve land disputes including ecotourism and conservation projects which involve indigenous inhabitants and refugees such as those in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region, the Chittagong Hill Tracts Land Dispute Resolution Commission was established in 1999 following the signing of the 1997 CHT Accord. The commission’s legal framework was later formalized with the enactment of the CHT Land (Disputes Settlement) Commission Act on July 12, 2001. 

However, the land rights of Indigenous Peoples living in the plain lands remain largely unrecognized. As a result, there continues to be a strong demand for the establishment of a separate land commission for plain land Indigenous Peoples to address long-standing historical injustices, resolve land disputes, and ensure the protection of their customary land rights.

A global pattern

The forced eviction of the Garo, Koch, and Barman peoples reflects an emergency of Indigenous Peoples lands violently taken for “development” or “conservation.”

Indigenous communities in Merauke, West Papua are resisting the government’s National Strategic Projects (PSN) for large plantations and infrastructure schemes affecting tens of thousands of hectares and over 100,000 people, with Indigenous residents reporting forced evictions and threats from security forces when resisting land loss. In Palawan Province Philippines, Indigenous residents in Balabac faced deployment of armed security guards, raising fears of eviction amid plans for ecotourism and development by major corporations. 

In Brazil, Guarani‑Kaiowá Indigenous communities in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul have faced repeated threats of forced eviction from their ancestral territories to make way for agricultural expansion and land reallocation. In Kenya, the Endorois people were coerced out of their ancestral territories after government authorities established game reserves and managed lands without consulting them, uprooting over 400 families.

“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. 

Stop the eviction

IPMSDL echoes the call for the Government of Bangladesh to immediately halt all eviction activities in Madhupur and to withdraw the ongoing lake excavation project, and hold them accountable for violating international laws and commitments protecting Indigenous lands and life.

We also urge for a thorough independent  investigation into incidents of unlawful destruction of crops and forests, including the recent cutting of banana plantations, and demands that adequate compensation be provided to the families impacted by these actions.

In addition, the Forest Act, 1927, along with any new forest legislation, must be repealed for contributing to conflict, discrimination, dispossession, and insecurity for forest‑dependent communities.

Reference: Beverly Longid, IPMSDL Co-Convenor, info@ipmsdl.org @ipmsdl