The present city of Guwahati is surrounded by a number of tribal belts and blocks inhabited by different tribal communities such as Rabha, Karbi, Tiwa, etc. The valuable land adjacent to the city, but under the possession of the tribal people for centuries, is now naturally an attractive proposition for different corporate houses. The BJP government in the state, committed to serve the corporate interests, has been instrumentilised by the corporate houses to grab the tribal land under different pretext, jettisoning all statutory provisions as well as issues pertinent to human rights. One of such moves is the proposed Barduar Satellite Township, which would require approximately 1,500 acres of land, located in the Palasbari area of South Kamrup falling under the Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council. Similarly, the proposed Jagiroad Integrated Satellite Township is a massive ₹5,923+ crore urban and industrial development project located about 55 km east of Guwahati in Morigaon district. Spanning over 2,000 acres, it is anchored by the ₹27,000 crore Tata Semiconductor Assembly and Test Facility (TSAT) and is designed to house a population of 200,000.

The proposed townships in the vicinity of Guwahati would lead to eviction of a large number of people from many tribal villages falling under the Rabha Hasong and Tiwa Autonomous Councils. Naturally, a multitude of  organisations are actively protesting against proposed satellite townships, fearing these projects will displace local communities, threaten ancestral lands, and compromise traditional ownership rights of the tribal people. Major agitations are being driven by concerns over government moves to acquire land in tribal belts and autonomous council areas.

It is worth mentioning in this context that the Tribal League, which was one of the crucial political platforms of the plain tribes of the Brahmaputra Valley, came into being in 1933 to politically assert the basic concerns of different tribal communities within the colonial political milieu. Ever since its inception, the Tribal League emphasised the issue of land alienation and the necessity of protective measures in the form of tribal belts. While the Constituent Assembly envisaged the mechanism for providing autonomy for different hill tribes of post-colonial Assam,  the state government, in response to the prolonged demand of the Tribal League amended the Assam Land and Revenue Regulations in 1947, authorising the state government  to adopt  measures required for protection of those classes who on account of their “primitive condition and lack of education or material advantages are incapable of looking after their welfare in so far as such welfare depends upon their having sufficient land for their maintenance”. Accordingly, the state government specified six social categories viz. plains tribals, hills tribals, tea garden tribals, Santhals, Scheduled Castes and Nepali cultivator-graziers as protected classes of people who deserved the envisaged protection. For materialization of the protectionist measures, the government of Assam constituted 47 protected belts and blocks, the tribal belts and blocks in common parlance, where the identified social categories had majority population. A belt is constituted where the areas with tribal majority are continuous and stretch out for a long distance. If the continuity is broken by intervention of non-tribal areas, then blocks are formed. Settlement of land in the protected blocks and belts would be determined by three main criteria, which are as follows: 1. The bona fide needs of the people of the identified social categories, who were permanently residing in the area before characterising as belt/block, 2. The bona fide needs of the people of the identified social categories, who were temporarily residing in the respective belt/block prior to its constitution but who were settlement holders (i.e., annual lease holders) and likely to become permanent residents within the block/belt, and 3. If the extent of cultivable land available for settlement in the protected belt/block concerned was large enough, the bona fide needs of the persons belonging to the non-protected social categories residing within the concerned block/belt from before its constitution, and persons belonging to the protected categories who were living elsewhere in the state.

The tribal belts and blocks constituted by the government of Assam from 1947 to 1989 had control over an area of 85,80,842 bighas (32,25,880 acres) scattered in 3,980 villages of the state. The total land area covered by the protected belts and blocks together in 2019 had, however, declined to 80,69,093 bighas (30,33,494 acres). This decline of total 5,11,749 bighas (1,92,387 acres) within a period of 30 years might be due to river erosion; development of infrastructure, mainly road construction; and similar other factors.

In addition to the tribal belts and blocks, the government of Assam, under specific state legislative acts, formed total six statutory autonomous councils, viz, Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council, Mising Autonomous Council, Tiwa Autonomous Council, Deori Autonomous Council, Sonowal Kachari Autonomous Council, and Thengal Kachari Autonomous Council in 1995. The primary objective was to provide autonomy to the tribal communities concerned so that the councils could also take appropriate measures necessary for protecting the land traditionally owned by the tribal communities. However, the present BJP government in Assam, witnessing its absolute insensitivity to the basic concerns of the common tribal people, has completely ignored all statutory provisions adopted by previous governments in the state. Now, the primary objective is to provide land to different corporate houses. Execution of the two satellite township projects would imply eviction of thousands of common tribal people, rendering them homeless, essentially to serve the corporate interests in the pretext of industrialisation and development. Notwithstanding steep resistance by different political organisations including the Left parties, the BJP government in the state seems to be determined to execute the proposed projects.