In the aftermath of the 1950 earthquake in Assam, thousands of families from the Mising tribe, living along the banks of the Brahmaputra, were displaced. The government of Assam established the Laika and Dodhia forest villages in Dibru and Saikhowa forests, respectively, between 1951 to 1957 to settle the Mising community. The Dibru and Saikhowa forest reserves were merged to form the Dibru-Saikhowa Wildlife Sanctuary in 1986, and later_ _notified as a national park in 1999.

The rehabilitation of the residents of Laika-Dodhia villages has remained a contentious issue since. Successive state_ _governments have failed to rehabilitate the displaced families as they could not find suitable land. The affected families have been displaced multiple times due to recurrent floods and erosion.

The Takam Mising Porin Kebang (TMPK) alleges that Dibru-Saikhowa Wildlife Sanctuary was upgraded to a national park without consulting the forest dwellers living in the area.

According to a news report, the Mising families lack basic facilities, such as electricity and water supply, and have been denied access to government welfare schemes since 1986 even as a government notification mandated that the residents be permitted to reside in the forest area till they are shifted elsewhere.

In 2012, the Mising community was again displaced by floods from Laika-Dodhia. The community moved to Namphai forest reserve but were evicted by the forest department. In the years that followed, the Mising community has faced several evictions and harassment at the hands of forest officials. In 2013, the authorities burnt down newly built huts of the Mising families who had settled in Namphai, calling them ‘encroachers’.

Following another major flood in 2017, the Misings entered Tarani forest reserve. On July 21, 2017, a meeting was chaired by the deputy commissioner in Tinsukia with the district administration, forest department and TMPK representatives. It was decided that the state government “will take all necessary steps for the rehabilitation of the legal inhabitants of Dodhia forest village in Dibru Saikhowa National Park” within eight months.

On October 20, 2020, in a letter addressed to the Tinsukia Wildlife Division for the relocation of Laika and Dodhia residents, 373 hectares of land were proposed to be allocated in Owguri area of Upper Dehing Reserve Forest division. But during a detailed survey, it was found that rehabilitation would involve the felling of 8,000-10,000 trees. A committee constituted by the Tinsukia deputy commissioner had also objected to the rehabilitation of all people into a single area in Owguri.

About 3,000 Mising residents of Laika-Dodhia have been staging a protest since December 2020 at a makeshift site near the deputy commissioner’s office, which went on for more than 43 days. Three protesters, including a 24-year-old pregnant woman and another 50-year-old woman, died due to cold and lack of health facilities at the makeshift camp.

On December 29, 2020, Congress leader Debabrata Saikia wrote a letter to the then Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal seeking urgent resolution of the issue and demanded legal land rights for the Mising community. Saika cited Citing how four schools in Laika were washed away by floods. He had also written to the National Human Rights Commission, alleging gross injustice to the Mising community.

On December 30, 2020, Sonowal constituted a 10-member committee. The committee submitted its proposal to the state on January 8, 2021, suggesting alternative sites for rehabilitation. The new proposal seeks to divert 135 hectares of forestland under Lakhimpur forest division for Dodhia residents, 166 hectares of Paharpur reserve forest and 72 hectares of land from Namphai forest reserve for Laika residents. The proposal has not found support from a large section of the Mising tribe.

Community members, along with the TMPK, have made their own list of favourable places for rehabilitation. They have also demanded that each family moving out of the national park should be given 0.67 hectares of land. 

In October 2023, residents of Paharpur protested the Assam Forest Department's move to rehabilitate Laika-Dodhia residents at in the area, fearing that they might lose their ancestral lands.

Minturaj Morang, chief convenor of the Laika-Dodhia rehabilitation demand committee, told LCW, "There has been no proper response/action by the government authorities when it comes to aiding/compensating and resettling the affected families." Morang also stated that indigenous families are living in miserable conditions.

The resettlement of 572 families of Laika residents is still under process. Out of the 572 families, 160 families were already allocated land in the Tapo area in Namphai, and the allocation of land process of 412 families in the Paharpur range is still under process by the government. For these 160 families, 72 hectares of land were allocated with 3 bighas (1 acre approx.) per family, and 109 families out of these, were earmarked for land allocation in the first phase. However, land entitlement has still not been given with papers by the authorities. The rest of the 51 families are under temporary rehabilitation in makeshift camps in the Tapo area.

For the 908 families of Dodhia, land allocation is still pending as the families had rejected their resettlement to Adhakona, Lakhimpur district~~ ~~_The communities _have demanded a flood-free area as they were devastated by floods in the past.