New Delhi: A longstanding demand of the residents of Arunachal Pradesh’s Dollungmukh circle to remove the Indian Air Force (IAF) base from the area has become louder after an elderly man received multiple injuries due to a bomb reportedly dropped by a Sukhoi 30 MK1 on his village. Residents have complained multiple times in the past about the serious accidents caused to people and livestock during test drills by fighter planes.
In April, Union defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Air Chief Birender Singh Dhanoa visited the drill range to witness Gagan Shakti, the mega combat exercise of the IAF carried out not too far from the India-China border. The Dollungmukh range is one of the four established bombing and firing ranges in the country.
The bomb, dropped on June 8 over Ruyu village, which comes under the administrative circle of the state’s Kamle district, seriously injured Bini Todum, a retired soldier from the Sashastra Seema Bal. He was admitted with multiple fractures of the knee at the Institute of Health Medical Sciences (TRIHMS) in Naharlagun, adjoining state capital Itanagar.
Bini’s grandson Teyum Murtem told The Wire from Itanagar, “My grandfather was inside the house when the shell struck it. It damaged our house and seriously injured him. He got multiple fractures on his knee.” He said, “We rushed him to the NHPC dispensary in Gogamukh which falls within Assam. However, on informing the Kamle district authorities about it, they shifted him to TRIHMS in Itanagar for better treatment.”
“After undergoing treatment for 18 days,” he added, “he will be released from hospital today. He is scared of going back to Dollungmukh as he is not able to walk properly yet; so we will shift him to my house in Itanagar till he recovers fully.”
Bini Todum, injured allegedly due to an IAF bomb, recovering at a hospital in Naharlagun. Credit: Arunachal Times
The family said they lead a hand-to-mouth existence and were worried about paying the hospital bills, which had run up to around Rs 1 lakh. “Four IAF personnel visited us at the Itanagar hospital a day after he was admitted. We sought help for his treatment but nothing came our way. They didn’t contact us thereafter. Just two days ago, after a lot of organisations urged the state government to intervene, chief minister Pema Khandu met us and released an amount of Rs one lakh for payment of the medical bill. So we are somewhat relieved,” he said.
In the last few weeks, many civil society organisations, besides the state Congress, have urged both the IAF and the state administration to provide compensation to the victim and those who lost their livestock.
Murtem said, on the instruction of the chief minister’s office, the family has filled up a form seeking compensation from the IAF. “We will submit it tomorrow to the chief minister’s office which will route it to the IAF,” he added.
Pasang Dorji Sona, the government’s media spokesperson, told The Wire, “The money has been released from the deputy commissioner’s discretionary funds. The chief minister has instructed the district authorities to send requests if any more cases of serious injuries come up. We are ready to do anything that needs to be done, including a formal request to the Central government on the issue if more such cases are reported.”
In 1992, another villager, Bini Tabom, was killed by shrapnel from a bomb dropped by a fighter plane during a test drill. “He died on the spot. His family is yet to receive any compensation from the IAF,” said Murtem.
On June 6, just two days prior to Todum’s accident, four mithuns (a herbivore of the cow family commonly found in the state) were charred to death due to another bomb dropped in the village. The angry villagers thereafter protested in front of the IAF premises and later buried the carcasses within the IAF areas.
Though IAF has reportedly denied that the test exercises conducted by its planes overshot the drill range, Murtem said the planes surely came to the civilian area.
“We don’t live inside the range. We live in our village. The IAF keeps accusing us of encroaching on its land, but it is our land that it is coming into and harming us. It is the air base that is extending its boundary. We have been living in the house for generations. Just a day before my grandfather was injured (on June 7), my brother survived a similar bomb attack while working in our cardamom field adjacent to the house,” he stated.
On June 8, an Arunachal Times report said, “There are markers for the bombs in the drill range, which the pilot obviously overshot.” The fighter planes take off for the test drills at Dollungmukh from the Tezpur base in Assam, bordering Arunachal.
According to some news reports, the IAF has ordered a Court of Inquiry to look into the incident, stating that “tactical and technical reasons will be ascertained and if any negligence is found, the victim would be compensated.” The Court of Inquiry was said to have been ordered after a delegation of villagers, led by the Dollungmukh Area Welfare Forum (DAWF), met IAF officials.
The Wire has contacted defence forces PRO Lt Col Harsh Vardhan Pande for an update on the Court of Inquiry but hasn’t received a response yet.
On June 12, the villagers, led by DAWF, sat on a dharna in front of the IAF base. “We sat in dharna for more than an hour just outside the air force base, but none of the personnel came out to meet us,” DAWF president Rotum Tebin told Arunachal Times.
Though the state government spokesperson told The Wire that it is willing to take up the issue with the Centre if more cases are reported, the authorities have not taken any action so far on a petition the villagers submitted to chief minister Khandu in December 2017. The villagers had petitioned Khandu seeking removal of the drill range from Dollungmukh during his visit to the area along with state MP and Union minister of state for home affairs, Kiren Rijiju.
Recently, during a visit of state governor B.D. Mishra to the area, the residents of Dollungmukh circle also urged him to intervene and solve the recurring problem by shifting the range out to a non-civilian area.
While a large part of the drill range falls in Assam, one part is in Arunachal. Since most of the land belongs to the Assam government, the IAF reportedly needs permission only from that government to operate the range.
The Arunachal part of the land was leased out to the IAF by the villagers through the state government for a period of 50 years. The lease expires in 2025. As per local media reports, many villagers claim that they didn’t know the meaning of the lease before they signed it when the state government approached them. They now want it annulled as it affects their daily life. Besides harm caused to the residents and their livestock from live-fire drills, the deafening sound of the fighter planes on regular test sorties have been a reason for fear and panic among the villagers.
“We also fear roaming about freely due to the presence of unexploded detonators in the area,” said Murtem.
