A Forgotten Reang Village :Deocherra Colony’s 70 residents live without roads or ambulance access. A bamboo bridge is their only link to the outside world.
Just eight kilometers from the bustling town of Kailashahar, in the shadow of one of Tripura’s oldest urban settlements, lies a small village so disconnected it might as well be forgotten. Deocherra Colony, a Reang tribal settlement of just 15 families and around 70 residents, has become a quiet symbol of administrative neglect — its people living without even the most basic form of connectivity: a road.
To reach Deocherra, there are no buses, no motorbikes, not even a dirt track wide enough for an emergency vehicle. Instead, one must descend through thick forest and cross a rickety bamboo bridge over a narrow stream. During the dry months, this fragile path might be navigable by foot. But when rain lashes the hills, even a light drizzle renders the path treacherous and impassable.
“In 1984, some of us came here, fleeing hardship, looking for land and peace,” said one elderly villager. “We started with nothing. Slowly we built our homes, raised families. But the administration… they never came. It’s like we don’t exist.
The residents of Deocherra, most of whom are descendants of Reang families displaced in the 1980s, say they have been living in isolation for over three decades. “In 1984, some of us came here, fleeing hardship, looking for land and peace,” said one elderly villager. “We started with nothing. Slowly we built our homes, raised families. But the administration… they never came. It’s like we don’t exist.”
That sense of invisibility turned into horror earlier this year, on a cold February night, when a fire tore through the village. In the span of minutes, three homes were engulfed in flames — a blaze that lit up the night sky but drew no aid. “We called the fire brigade,” recalled a resident. “But they couldn’t reach us. No road. No help. We watched our homes burn and could do nothing.”
The villagers had only buckets of water from the stream and their bare hands to fight the fire. Miraculously, no lives were lost — but the trauma of that night lingers.
“I was sleeping when it started,” said a young man who barely escaped the fire. “We rushed out. The flames were everywhere. My house… gone. If we had even a simple road, maybe a fire engine could have come. Maybe we could have saved something.”
Beyond fires, it is the daily dangers and silent emergencies that haunt Deocherra’s people. Expectant mothers, elderly residents, and sick children must endure treacherous treks if they need medical attention. “We don’t even dream of an ambulance,” said one woman. “There is no way for it to reach us. We carry patients on bamboo stretchers through the forest.”
All they ask for is a modest lifeline — not a highway, not even a paved road — just a basic, all-weather path. “A culvert or a steel bridge would change everything,” said another villager. “We don’t want much. We just want to be reachable.”
What makes the neglect more painful is the proximity of help. Kailashahar town, with its hospitals, schools, government offices, and fire services, is barely an hour’s walk away — for those strong enough to make the hike. “It’s not like we’re in some remote mountain,” a resident pointed out. “We are eight kilometers away. But for us, it’s as if we are cut off from the world.”
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Even the forest path that does exist is unreliable. With loose soil and steep inclines, a single rain can turn the trail into a muddy death trap. Children walk it barefoot to reach school. Pregnant women cross the bridge with the fear of slipping into the stream below. And in times of emergency, it becomes a wall between life and death.
Despite repeated appeals to local authorities, villagers say their concerns have fallen on deaf ears. No survey team has visited. No plans have been announced. Their isolation continues — day after day, year after year.
As Tripura moves toward renewable energy targets, smart grids, and solar subsidies, a small community just outside one of its prominent towns still waits for a simple road. Not for convenience, not for luxury — but for survival.
Deocherra doesn’t want to be forgotten anymore. Its people are not asking for miracles. They are asking to be seen.
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(With Inputs from Debasish Datta, Kailasahar. )
