A journalist from a renowned news agency witnessed the situation in a picturesque valley where Meitei villages were facing attacks.

In early May, during the dark hours of the night, a group of men came down from the hills. They were shouting slogans loudly and firing gunshots, disrupting the calm evening air. Some of them had swords, and others carried bottles filled with petrol and diesel.

"Kill them, burn them!" shouted the attackers, a horrifying war cry that stuck in sheeela's mind.

She and her fellow villagers had feared an attack as rumours of ethnic violence spread quickly through whispers and mobile phones. At midnight, they had to leave their homes to escape the angry mob.

On 3rd May, a conflict over affirmative action in India's northeastern state of Manipur led to ethnic violence. Over 130 people have lost their lives in the clashes between the Meitei majority and the Kuki tribal minority groups. As a result, around 60,000 people have been forced to flee their homes and become refugees in their own land.

The Meitei people, who are mostly Hindus like Sheela, live in community villages spread across the vast valley, including the capital city, Imphal. On the other hand, the Kukis, who are mostly Christians, live in villages governed by their chiefs in the rolling hills.

The continuous violence has sadly caused a nearly total separation of the two groups. Ms. Sheela's village, Dolaithabi, along with three other villages (Ekoi, Yangkhaman, and Leitanpokpi) in the Imphal East district, was brutally attacked by the Kukis one night, resulting in burning and looting.

The villages, mostly inhabited by Meitei people, with a population of around 3,000, were at great risk as they were located close to Kuki settlements near the foothills. The two groups' villages were separated by only 1,500 meters (1.5 km). To bring back peace, security forces have established buffer zones in these regions and civilians on both sides have created bunkers manned by armed volunteers, calling themselves "village defense forces."

It is hard to believe that such a beautiful and peaceful place could be the centre of a violent conflict. The area has a dammed river named Iril, flowing past calm villages with sloped tin homes (homes made of metal sheets with Corrogated roof). The locals cultivate rice farms on the floodplains, surrounded by green hills covered in oak and pine trees, reaching up to the cloudy sky.

This valley is enclosed by hills and is in a precarious position. The Kukis have an advantage as they can attack from the high vantage points on the hills at any time. Lenin Lamabam, a high-ranking officer from Manipur's military police, along with 80 of his colleagues and many border forces, is patrolling the area to maintain security.

Following the violence in May and a few more attacks, over half of the residents fled the area to seek refuge with their relatives or in relief camps. Their houses and storage buildings were completely destroyed, and everything they owned, including TVs and washing machines, was stolen. The once beautiful landscape is now filled with the wreckage of burnt homes and vehicles.

Some men have come back to work on their farms and take care of their animals during the daytime. However, their livelihoods are now very risky as both Meitei and Kuki farmers have been shot at while working in the fields. Chanam Tapha, a 60-year-old widow, who is living in a relief camp, is puzzled by how quickly the situation turned so serious. Thousands of people, mostly Meiteis, have been displaced by the violence and are now staying in relief camps in the valley, according to an official.

In the village of Leitangpokpi, which is now only half-populated with around 100 homes, two pharmacies, a market, and a primary school, an unexpected message emerged amidst the ruins of the damaged houses. A paper stuck to a metal wall urged the community to support a "war on drugs." A local group called the "committee for the war on drugs" encouraged people to stop growing poppy and "protect our generation."

Tensions in Manipur have multiple causes, and one of them is a recent crackdown on drugs. The state government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Chief Minister N Biren Singh, a Meitei, started a controversial campaign against poppy farming. Since 2017, they claim to have destroyed more than 18,600 acres of poppy farms, mostly in areas inhabited by the Kuki community. Manipur has been facing a drug addiction crisis for a long time and is one of four northeastern Indian states sharing a border with Myanmar, the world's second-largest opium producer.

Mr. Singh's campaign against poppy farming became a source of conflict between the two groups. He warned that villages involved in poppy cultivation, mainly Kuki communities, would lose their welfare benefits and accused the Kukis of being involved in the drug business. In response, the Kukis accused Mr. Singh of unfairly singling out and defaming their community, which he denies.

In Leitangpokpi, villagers say that poppy farming is being done in the hills above their village. In the past, many Meitei men worked as farmers or firewood traders, leasing Kuki-owned land in the hills for three years, cutting down trees, and selling firewood in the market. However, this activity has decreased in recent years as they have heard that many villages are now growing poppy. It's important to note that this claim has not been independently verified.

The extent of poppy farming in this area is not clear. Official records show that over 730 acres of poppy farms in the Imphal East district, which is home to about 16% of Manipur's population (around 3.3 million people) and includes villages inhabited by Naga, Meitei, and Nepali communities, have been destroyed since 2017.

Another issue adding to the tensions is the growing divide over undocumented illegal immigrants from Myanmar (formerly named Burma), as Manipur shares a long border of about 400km (248 miles) with the country. Stickers with the message "go back, Burmese refugees" have started showing up on shops and homes in Meitei villages, fueling the situation even more.

Mr. Singh has repeatedly expressed concerns about the ongoing civil war in Myanmar, which has led to an increase in refugees from Myanmar. Many of these refugees are ethnically similar to the Kukis. Most of the refugees, around 40,000, have sought refuge in the neighboring state of Mizoram. The Manipur state government panel has identified 2,187 immigrants from Myanmar in four districts of Manipur until the end of April. Officials noted that there is a significant number of illegal migrants, and they believe that influential illegal poppy cultivators and drug lords from Myanmar settling in Manipur have contributed to the recent violence.

Before the recent violence, it seems that regular people from both communities lived peacefully together. In the villages near the hills, Meiteis would go up the hills to collect firewood and use machines to build roads. On the other hand, Kukis would come down from the hills to engage in business activities.

Ms. Sheela mentioned that they have been living peacefully with their Kuki neighbors for a long time. They would visit each other's villages, do shopping together, and some even invested in local savings funds jointly.

Ms. Sheela wonders how their friends and neighbors suddenly turned into enemies overnight. She questions whether they were influenced or provoked by people from outside their community? (IPA Service)