On February 20, 2023, the Noney Forest Division and police teams from Noney, Kangpokpi, and Bishnupur districts, evicted the residents of K. Songjang, a Kuki tribal village in the Churachandpur district of Manipur.

The state government notified and carried out the eviction drive, deploying hundreds of police personnel and paramilitary forces to evict around 12 families at K. Songjang, saying the village was recently set up and was encroaching on the Churachandpur-Khoupum protected forest stretch. The Manipur Forest Department issued a clarification that K. Songjang village is a new settlement established in 2021, much after the notification of the Protected Forest in 1966, and, violates state forest conservation laws. The villagers, mostly farmers, had cultivated lemon, yongchak (tree beans), and banana trees, grew and sold crops such as chickpeas, cabbage, Hawai thrak (a type of pea), ginger, potatoes, and chak hawai beans, the most profitable of the lot. Back on February 15, the Deputy Commissioner of Churachandpur district ordered a verification drive in several villages under the Churachandpur and Mualnuam sub-divisions in South Manipur to identify the villagers, whom they termed to be ‘illegal immigrants' from Myanmar. A show cause notice was also served to the Kungpi Naosen village in the same district, directing the villagers to vacate the land for the same reason. 

To resist such actions, the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF), a newly formed conglomerate of tribal groups, and the Kuki Students Union (KSO) organised mass rallies in all the hills districts to protest evictions. Protests were also held at Delhi's Jantar Mantar. 

A complaint was filed before the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) on March 5, 2023, to quash the notification declaring the area as a forest land and against the wrongful use of police force. A notice was issued by the NCST to the state government on March 14, 2023, asking the government to share all facts on the issue and the action taken report within fifteen days.

Douminlal, a 31-year-old former resident recalling the tragic events, told The Print, “They came with six JCBs and uncountable police and forest personnel. They threw stones at the poultry coops, took away the chickens, destroyed the pigsty, and towed away the squealing pigs.”

While speaking to LCW, leaders of local organisations emphasised how their ancestral land is under attack, and even after multiple appeals and requests, the current government launched a scathing attack targeting one specific community and their inheritance. 

“Land is a kind of identity for the people. The tribal people are deeply attached to their land. But because of government policies or undue processes followed in the declaration of reserved forests, protected forests, or wetlands, there were a lot of grievances among the affected people. This and various other issues led to the Tribal Solidarity March on May 3,” said Mangcha Haokip, a research scholar from Churachandpur.

Robert Thongkholal Haokip, an expert on North Eastern affairs, and an Assistant Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, stated that the state government has declared a large portion of tribal-owned and inhabited hill areas as its land circumventing the forest-dwelling communities by depriving them of a consultation. They have also been subjected to land grabs, forced displacement, and exploitation of natural resources, leading to poverty, social unrest, and loss of cultural identity. 

Several mass protests took place in March over the evictions, and the state witnessed another massive flare-up on May 3 after the 'Tribal Solidarity March' called in protest against the demand for Scheduled Tribe status by a section of Meiteis. The rally organised in the hill districts of the state to protest the Meitei community’s demand for the Scheduled Tribe (ST) status turned violent and opened old fault lines between the two communities i.e. Meitei and Kukis, reigniting the ethnic conflict. Until August 2023, over 160 people (mostly Kukis) reportedly died, over 300 were injured, with tens of thousands reported to have been displaced since the May 3 incident. Reports suggest that hundreds sustained bullet injuries and brutal wounds during the violence.

Numerous human rights violations were also reported during this conflict, with 220 churches, 116 villages, and 39 houses being burnt down and destroyed during this ethnic conflict. Despite multiple appeals and redressal requests, allegedly no action was taken by the state government to address the concerns of the people, local organisations, and representative bodies in due time, which further fueled the rising tensions.

As of October 2023, all the displaced people, including children, from K. Songjang were taking shelter in the next Kuki village of Joujangtek, about 4 kilometres away.

On 19 February 2024, the Manipur government dismissed claims made by the Kuki-Zomi tribe over the Thangjing Hills, and said, "The present-day Thangjing hill range falls within the Churachandpur-Khoupum protected forests... The present-day Ukha-Loikhai settlement falls within the boundary of this protected forest."

Even in the months before the ethnic conflict began in 2023, the two communities had clashed with each other over worshipping rights on the hill range the year before. After a Kuki students’ body issued a statement barring Meitei people from visiting the hill range, a Meitei body had issued a statement barring Kuki-Zomi people from the nearest town’s main market.

The Manipur government also cancelled the notification that had put the Kuki-Zomi village out of the jurisdiction of the Churachandpur-Khoupum Protected Forests. The move allowed the officials to qualify the Ukha-Loikhai settlement as encroachment on protected lands.

Months after the ethnic conflict began in 2023, the NCST took cognisance of the complaint and it too started an investigation by invoking its powers as a civil court.