7-hour stand-off with tribals over burial at densely-populated Mango

A controversy centred around the burial of a tribal man at Ulidih in Mango led to a stand-off in Jamshedpur on Tuesday, prompting police to step in and negotiate a truce, which finally happened after over seven hours of arguments amid frayed tempers.

The body was finally cremated at Subernarekha burning ghat at 6.30 pm after the tribals were persuaded by the police and administration. Officers who had gathered there by noon, an hour after the tribals had arrived there with the body, saw merit in the argument of local residents who insisted that the land where the tribals wanted to bury the body belonged to the government and was not a cemetery.

The tribals, however, claimed that they had been using the ground at Road No 5 at Sankusai in Ulidih for burials for decades.

We convinced the agitating tribals and asked them to move the body for cremation at the Subernarekha burning ghat. They agreed only after our assurance that the administration would look into the matter thoroughly,” Ulidih police station OC Dhananjay Baitha told The Telegraph Online.

The standoff occurred at a residential area in Ulidih along Dimna Road near Ganga Memorial Hospital. Local residents found it difficult to move about since morning as protestors from both sides had gathered there in addition to the large posse of policemen.

Madan Sirka, who represented the tribals, said, “The site may not have been registered as a burial ground in government records, but we have been burying bodies there for decades. In fact, several houses have now come up on the burial ground.”

But circle officer of Mango Kamini Kaushal, who looks after issues related to land disputes, wasn’t convinced.

“The tribals had produced a paper signed by an executive magistrate in 1983, but that was not enough for proving their claim on the land. There is no mention of a burial ground. If it indeed was a burial ground, then it should have been mentioned in land records,” Kaushal said.