Aizawl, August 9: Mizoram and Assam held a meeting on Friday to discuss their long-standing border dispute, 20 months after their last talks in November 2022.

The delegations from both states met in Aizawl, led by Assam’s Border Protection and Development Minister Atul Bora and Mizoram’s Home Minister K Sapdanga. This is the fourth ministerial-level talk since August 2021 and the first since the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) took power in Mizoram in December last year.

The dispute stems from colonial-era demarcations in 1875 and 1933, with Mizoram claiming 509 square miles of the inner line reserved forest and Assam regarding the 1933 Survey of India map as its constitutional boundary. The lack of ground demarcation has led to overlapping claims, with areas falling within both states.