Mizoram's Zo Re-Unification Organisation opposes Centre’s move to resume Indo-Myanmar border fencing

The Zo Re-Unification Organisation (ZORO), a Mizoram-based body representing the Chin, Kuki, Mizo and Zomi tribes across India, Myanmar and Bangladesh, on November 21, reiterated its strong opposition to the central government’s reported move to restart fencing along the Mizoram stretch of the Indo-Myanmar border. 

The group claimed that New Delhi has revived the plan after briefly halting it due to resistance from the state government and civil society organisations.

Mizoram shares a 510-km-long border with Myanmar’s Chin state, with whom the Mizo people share deep ethnic, cultural and familial ties. Addressing a press conference, ZORO vice president L. Ramdinliana Renthlei said the organisation considers the fencing plan “unacceptable” as it threatens to divide people who share the same ancestry and bloodline. He reaffirmed that ZORO would continue to resist the proposal “with utmost seriousness,” describing the collective pushback from Mizoram as an effort to prevent an “Indanna bang” or “barrier wall.”

Renthlei said the organisation has extensively studied the Centre’s proposal and fears it will bring severe negative consequences, especially for ethnic Zo communities living on both sides of the border. He noted that communities across Mizoram and Myanmar have maintained close ties, with intermarriage still common. “If the border is fenced, these natural social bonds will be abruptly severed, cutting off close relatives and creating deep divisions among families,” he said, warning that such a move could fragment their identity and expose them to domination by external forces.

ZORO also warned that the fencing could significantly harm land and livelihood patterns along the frontier. Renthlei claimed that fencing—proposed to be erected 150 metres inside the boundary—would lead to the loss of agricultural land, grazing areas, paddy fields, rivers, sand resources and traditional hunting grounds, affecting the livelihoods of several families. He pointed out that Mizoram had earlier lost 12 villages, while others were split in half, when fencing was installed along the Mizoram–Bangladesh border.

Additionally, ZORO raised environmental concerns, saying border fencing would disrupt the movement of wildlife between India and Myanmar and could endanger cross-border species over time. The organisation had previously criticised the Centre’s border-fencing initiatives and asserted that the interests and unity of the Zo people must be prioritised in all border-related decisions.