19 Water rights and land issues in the CHT. In Bangladesh, discussions about land conflict includes disputes over access to water bodies and inland fisheries, as about 11 percent of the total population, or over 17 million people are involved in fisheries for their livelihood, majority of them on seasonal basis (FAO, 2016). Also, the historical encroachment into indigenous peoples’ lands in the plains and the hills has continued unabated, with a major portion of IP lands already land-grabbed. State-sponsored migrations and plantations (tea, rubber, horticulture) into the Chittagong Hill Tracts, along with heavy militarization, have changed the region’s demography, with most of the indigenous peoples already displaced and with large numbers having fled into neighboring India. Khas lands.5 As of 2014, the total khas land and water bodies under the government is over two million hectares, of which only about 24 percent are agricultural lands. The rest are inland water bodies (24 percent) and nonagricultural land (52 percent) that are located mostly in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Yet, only a portion of valuable agricultural khas lands were distributed, and these often involved the payment of bribes and corruption. Much of the khas lands supposedly under government custody for distribution to the landless, have been illegally occupied by rich peasants. Also, only five percent of the khas water bodies have been leased out to poor fisherfolk, as 95 percent of khas water bodies have been grabbed by local elites. The Bangladesh government is also currently custodian of some 850,000 hectares of land under the Vested Property Act, plus some 405,000 hectares under the Abandoned Property Act (Barkat, 2007). These consist of lands confiscated by the government from fleeing Hindu families following the Indian partition of 1947. However, these lands have not been returned to their rightful owners despite a Supreme Court ruling in 2001.6 5 Khas land refers to government land and water bodies. The Indian partition in 1947 caused a massive population migration of an estimated 3.3 million people spilling in both directions on the eastern border between India and Bangladesh (East Pakistan). Bangladesh instituted a series of laws, known as Vested Property Acts against non-Muslims, allowing the government to confiscate property of individuals it deemed to be enemies of the State, especially the lands of fleeing Hindu families. Nearly 750,000 families were dispossessed of agricultural lands. (Barkat et al, 2000: 37-38). The Act was repealed by the Supreme Court of Bangladesh in 2001, citing that it violated provisions of the Bangladesh Constitution. 6 Regional Summary: A Perspective Overview of Land Conflicts in Six Asian Countries the political will to recover all ceiling surplus lands, and many landowners circumvented the law through illegal land transactions and corruption.