In many parts of Arunachal Pradesh, jhum cultivation, also known as shifting cultivation, has been practised for generations across the region’s hills and forests. Farmers clear and burn vegetation before the sowing season, rotating fields over cycles that allow land to recover.
On the 20th of May, Jamo Mihu, a Senior Agricultural Field Assistant with over 30 years of government service, went to his field for the jhum burning his family had been preparing for. Before leaving, he called his daughter Ajoh, 29. “I asked him if I should accompany him but he said it was not necessary as my uncle was going with him,” she recalls. The family has practised jhum cultivation for generations.
For Jamo Mihu, it was just another day on the field, burning his field for a new crop and a season beginning as it always had. He could not have known what was coming.
As the family carried out the jhum burning, Dibang Valley District’s Circle Officer Dr Tadang Rai arrived at the site and immediately took issue with the fire. According to Jamo, he introduced himself and allegedly issued warnings with statements such as, “I am the CO, I won’t spare you if you set fire here.”
“It doesn’t matter whether he is a magistrate or not. If fire was his priority concern, he should have brought the fire department with him. He didn’t,” Ajoh told EastMojo. Her father, already in the process of extinguishing the fire, told the CO plainly, “We don’t need your advice. It is under control.”
Ajoh also points out that the situation had already been communicated clearly before the CO even stepped onto the field. “Before the CO entered, my uncle told him, ‘You don’t have to go, it is finished.’ But he still went ahead. Even after seeing that it was not a forest fire, he still sent the police officials.”
With no fire department in tow and no formal complaint on record, the CO left the scene. But, the police came next.
Shortly after the CO left, while Jamo Mihu was speaking on the phone with his wife about their plans to cultivate soybean and maize crops once they clear the fields, police officials allegedly arrived without warning or question. “Without asking a single question, they came in and brutally assaulted my father,” Ajoh says. “There were multiple bruises on his body. After that, they took him to jail. Isn’t this administrative brutality? No proper formal complaint was lodged. They were simply beaten and taken to jail.”
While Jamo cannot recollect the exact number of officials present, he believes there were around 16. It was around 8 PM and completely dark. Ajoh, 29, was with a friend when her mother called in panic. “She said, ‘The police are beating him. Go there.'” When she arrived, she found 5 to 6 police officials with lathis. Her father was not the only one targeted. Her uncle and a worker had also been beaten, with three people assaulted in total.
When Ajoh confronted the Sub Inspector, he allegedly said that her father’s hand was not broken and that he was still alive, adding that they had beaten him on the magistrate’s orders. Ajoh maintains that her father had not threatened any police officer and that the force was used solely because he had not handed over his dao. According to her, the police came up to him, asked whether he had spoken to the CO, and began beating him without further cause. An FIR was subsequently filed against the police.
EastMojo reached out to Chhote Lal Sahani, the Sub Inspector accused of assaulting Jamo Mihu, who directed us to contact the Officer in Charge. The OC Incharge, Lokmay Bolok, responded to the allegations saying that the incident had already circulated widely on social media. “Our police had gone there. He was holding a dao and when asked to release it, he became aggressive. The assault happened because of that,” he said.
When asked whether the Circle Officer had issued orders for the assault, Bolok’s response was unclear. He stated that there had been a verbal complaint, while also noting that the magistrate was present at the scene. Attempts were made to contact Circle Officer Dr Tadang Rai. There was no response as of the time of writing.
The incident in Anini reflects a broader tension playing out across Arunachal Pradesh, where forest fires and jhum cultivation are becoming increasingly difficult to navigate. Arunachal Pradesh recorded 461 fire calls between January 1 and April 27, 2026, of which 323 were classified as forest fires, according to a report by Marina Dai for Down to Earth. Farmers across the state say this year’s fires spread faster and lasted longer than usual.
Officials interviewed for the same report noted that shrinking buffer zones between forests, villages, and farmlands had increased the risk of fires spreading into reserve forests, adding pressure on local administrations to respond to burning activity. But for communities who have practised jhum cultivation for generations, the line between a controlled agricultural burn and a punishable act is becoming dangerously blurred, and as the case of Jamo Mihu shows, the consequences can be severe.
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Following the incident, people of Anini from all walks of life staged a peaceful protest rally in solidarity with Jamo Mihu and against the actions of the police department and district administration. The rally was jointly organised by the public, with participation from the Idu Mishmi Cultural and Literary Society (IMCLS), the All Idu Mishmi Students Union (AIMSU), the Dibang Valley Students Union (DVSU), the All Idu Mishmi Youth Association (AIMYA), women welfare groups, youth associations, and other community organisations, all demanding justice, accountability, and a fair investigation into the alleged assault.
The organisations also submitted a joint representation demanding the immediate filing of a charge sheet against CO Dr Tadang Rai and SI Chhote Lal Sahani within three days, a fair departmental inquiry, and the termination of both officials within seven days.
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