Refugee Tibetans creating problems for India and its people

14 September, 2012

There are reports that Tibetan refugees are making large-scale unauthorized encroachments and constructions in different parts of the country - especially in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and even in forest areas - thereby causing irreparable damage to heritage, culture and environment of the area.

EVEN IN THE capital city of Delhi, huge Tibetan localities have been set up in the outskirts of Yamuna. Tibetans have even occupied hill-tops in Mussoorie where normally ordinary people find it hard to reach, that too just in the vicinity of now deserted heritage structure of Surveyor General of India, a building that dates back to British rule in the country.

There are reports that Tibetan refugees are misusing people of some Indian tribes whose race seems similar to that of Tibetans. Even the High Court has now been seized with the matter through Public Interest Litigation (PIL) for such encroachments by Tibetans in Kangra and Mandi (Himachal Pradesh).

It is indeed a matter of deep concern that Indian government remains a mute spectator to such illegal activities of refugees who do not even have the right to buy land in India. It is matter of enquiry how several thousand of Tibetan refugees coming to India in the year 1959 have now swelled to such big numbers, which is practically not possible by normal population-growth.

Enquiry should also be made if Tibetan refugees encourage more influx of Tibetans from Tibet through secret routes, which is rather encouraged by Chinese authorities to dilute Tibetan population in Tibet.

The same holds good for refugees from Bangladesh. At a time when there is an acute scarcity of public resources for basic needs of Indian citizens, much is being spent on refugees from other countries whose number is regularly swelling causing law and order problems. It is time that a fresh policy be drafted so that refugees may be sent back to their native countries - and also to save Indian culture, heritage and environment. Such a step will also be in diplomatic interest - in the context of Indo-China relations.

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COMMENTS (1)

Guest

Anil Dutt

It is really sad to learn that Mr. Subhash Chandra ji, an RTI activist has such a limited knowledge about Tibetan refugee and had shared some misinformation. When I saw the title, "Refugee Tibetans creating problems for India and its people" I was so excited to read the article. But the article failed to provide any concrete explanation neither about how these refugees are "creating problem" nor "causing irreparable damage to heritage, culture and environment of the area". I looked up online for the tibetan population and found that around 80,000 tibetans came to India in 1959 after Chinese attack and the present population is around 150,000 (it is less than the population of an Indian city like Shimla) . Only 70,000 tibetans have been added in the past 52 years and not "swelled to big number" as Mr. Subhash would make us believe. Throwing these baseless allegations is not an ethical citizen journalism and unexpected from an RTI activist.