Eleven people, all residents of Torsa Tea Garden in West Bengal's Alipurduar district, were arrested on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, for protesting against the construction of a land port at the India-Bhutan border, The Hindu reported on November 5. Local residents have been protesting at the site for the past 100 days, demanding rehabilitation and compensation.

Source: The Hindu via Tech Word News

Among those arrested are four women and seven men, all from adivasi and tribal communities. Construction at the Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI) site in Gotabari, in the Torsa Tea Garden area, had been going on for nearly five months, during which locals maintained a peaceful, indefinite sit-in beside the project site for over 100 days.

The FIR and the families' account

The FIR in the case — Jaigaon Police Station Case No. 326/26, registered on November 3 — was based on a written complaint by Rakesh Kumar Meena, a Junior Engineer with the LPAI, dated November 2. Family members of those arrested said they were not aware of their whereabouts for about 18 hours and that the arrested people were moved through four to five police stations before their arrest was registered.

A press statement by the Paschim Banga Cha Majoor Samity (PBCMS), a registered non-political union of tea garden workers, pointed out that there was no police complaint of obstruction or violence during the preceding 100 days of protest against the land acquisition. According to the PBCMS, the confrontation occurred on November 2, when bulldozers arrived to proceed with work on the disputed land and people protested and argued with officials, saying their repeated demands for compensation had been ignored.

Source: The Hindu via Daily Bspark

Land cultivated without ownership papers

Earlier this year, an independent fact-finding team comprising Professor Virginius Xaxa, Siraj Dutt and Anuprada Singh visited Torsa from August 1 to 3, 2026. Its findings recorded that generations of the affected families have cultivated this land without holding ownership documents for it.

After the arrests, local residents of the tea garden protested against the administration at the site of the proposed land port. The report did not carry a response from the district police or the LPAI on the families' account of the arrests.