The University of Arizona’s Indigenous Rights and Protected Areas Initiative Condemns the Arrest and Detention of Indigenous Human Rights Defender Pranab Doley and Calls for His Immediate Release

July 14, 2026

Tucson, Arizona — 14 July 2026

The Indigenous Rights and Protected Areas Initiative of the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program (IPLP) at the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law condemns in the strongest terms the arrest and continued detention of Pranab Doley, Indigenous human rights defender of the Mising people, convener of the Greater Kaziranga Land and Human Rights Protection Committee (GKLHRPC), and a member of the Advisory Council of this Initiative. We call for his immediate and unconditional release and for the withdrawal of all charges arising from the peaceful exercise of his rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, and to defend the collective rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The facts as reported

According to Indigenous Peoples’ organizations, including Indigenous Peoples Rights International and the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact, and to Indian media reporting, Mr. Doley was arrested by Assam Police on the morning of 12 July 2026 at a residence in the Sundarpur area of Guwahati, in connection with a criminal case registered at Bokakhat Police Station on 29 June 2026. He is reported to have been arrested without being shown an arrest warrant, to have had his mobile telephone seized, and to have been denied contact with supporters before being transferred from Dispur Police Station into the custody of Bokakhat Police. Reports indicate that a large police contingent surrounded the house at the time of the arrest.

Mr. Doley has reportedly been booked under numerous provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including counts of criminal conspiracy, unlawful assembly, rioting, obstruction of and assault on public servants, mischief, criminal trespass and criminal intimidation. We are further alarmed by reports that police raided Mr. Doley’s ancestral home in the course of searching for Rajiv Pegu, another member of the GKLHRPC, suggesting a widening pattern of pressure on the leadership of the affected communities.

The arrest follows Mr. Doley’s leadership of the peaceful movement of Adivasi and Indigenous farming families opposing the proposed luxury hotel development at Inglay (Ingle) Pathar, on the fringes of Kaziranga National Park, and the reported reclassification and allocation of community grazing and agricultural lands to the Assam Tourism Development Corporation for that project. It comes while the matter is sub judice: in June 2026 the Gauhati High Court is reported to have issued notices to the Assam Tourism Development Corporation on a petition brought by twenty Adivasi farming families challenging the taking of possession and fencing of the land and the absence of the required environmental and social impact assessments. The arrest of the communities’ most prominent spokesperson while those proceedings remain pending is, in our view, capable of having a serious chilling effect on the ability of the affected families to pursue their claims, and we ask that it be examined in that light.

Who Pranab Doley is

Pranab Doley belongs to the Indigenous Mising community of Assam and holds a Master of Social Work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. He has founded and co-founded organizations including the Centre for North East Studies and Policy Advocacy, the All Kaziranga Affected Communities’ Rights Committee, the People Ecology Network and the Jyoti Bishnu Cultural and Research Centre. He has twice contested the Bokakhat constituency in the Assam Legislative Assembly elections, finishing as a strong runner-up. In November 2025 he represented affected communities from India at the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights in Geneva.

Mr. Doley is a member of the Advisory Council of the Indigenous Rights and Protected Areas Initiative,. His public work has consistently been pursued through peaceful and lawful means: community organising, public meetings, participation in electoral politics, and recourse to the Indian courts. 

The applicable international standards

India is bound by international human rights obligations that this arrest calls squarely into question. Under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which India is a State Party, everyone enjoys the rights to liberty and security of person and to freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention (Article 9), to a fair hearing (Article 14), and to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association (Articles 19, 21 and 22). Detention that is a response to the legitimate exercise of those freedoms is arbitrary within the meaning of Article 9 and of the jurisprudence of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples affirms the rights of Indigenous Peoples to their lands, territories and resources (Articles 25–26), to redress for lands taken or damaged without their free, prior and informed consent (Article 28), to freedom from forced removal (Article 10), and to free, prior and informed consent before the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories (Article 32). India voted in favour of the Declaration. The UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders further recognizes the right of everyone, individually and in association with others, to promote and strive for the protection of human rights, and the corresponding duty of the State to protect defenders against violence, retaliation and arbitrary action (Articles 1 and 12).

These international obligations are reinforced by India’s own legal framework, including the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, which requires the recognition of forest rights and the informed consent of the affected Gram Sabhas before communities are displaced or their forest lands diverted. Where, as a general matter, tourism or infrastructure development proceeds in Indigenous territories without free, prior and informed consent and the criminal law is then brought to bear on those who object, the result is not conservation or development but dispossession under colour of law. It is to avoid that outcome that we ask the authorities to act.

We further recall that private enterprises associated with such projects carry independent responsibilities under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to identify, prevent and mitigate adverse human rights impacts throughout their business relationships, including impacts on Indigenous Peoples’ land rights and on human rights defenders who raise concerns about their operations.

Our calls

We respectfully but urgently call upon the Government of India and the Government of Assam to:

  • Immediately and unconditionally release Pranab Doley, and withdraw all charges arising from the legitimate and peaceful exercise of his rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association and to the defence of Indigenous Peoples’ rights;

  • Guarantee his physical and psychological integrity while he remains in custody, and ensure unhindered access to legal counsel, to his family and to independent medical care;

  • Ensure that any proceedings against him comply fully with the guarantees of due process and fair trial under Indian and international law, and that the circumstances of his arrest — including the reported absence of a warrant — are independently reviewed;

  • Cease all acts of intimidation, surveillance, harassment and criminalization directed at members of the Greater Kaziranga Land and Human Rights Protection Committee, including Rajiv Pegu, and at other Indigenous and Adivasi leaders in Assam;

  • Suspend all land acquisition, transfer, possession and construction related to the proposed hotel development at Inglay Pathar pending the outcome of the proceedings before the Gauhati High Court and the full recognition of the rights of Indigenous Peoples, including their right to free, prior and informed consent;

  • Ensure that all conservation, tourism and infrastructure initiatives in and around Kaziranga National Park and other protected areas are designed and implemented with the free, prior and informed consent of the Indigenous and Adivasi communities concerned, and in accordance with the Forest Rights Act, 2006.

We call upon the National Human Rights Commission of India and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes to take up this case as a matter of urgency.

We call upon the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights to monitor this case closely and to engage the Government of India, and we stand ready to provide these mechanisms with documentation.

We call upon the international conservation community  and upon any corporate and financial actors associated with the proposed Kaziranga tourism development to satisfy themselves, through independent human rights due diligence, that no project with which they are connected is proceeding without the free, prior and informed consent of the affected communities or against a background of pressure on those who object, and to use their leverage accordingly.

In solidarity

Across the protected areas our Initiative documents worldwide, we observe a recurring pattern in which Indigenous Peoples are cast as threats to the landscapes they have sustained for generations, and in which those who speak for them find themselves answering criminal charges. Whatever the eventual outcome of the proceedings in this case, the pattern is one that States, conservation institutions and private investors alike have an obligation to interrupt rather than to reproduce. Defending one’s ancestral land is not a crime. It is a right — and, in the face of the biodiversity and climate crises, it is a public good.

We stand with Pranab Doley, with his family, and with the Indigenous and Adivasi communities of the Kaziranga landscape. We will continue to raise this case in every international forum available to us until he is free.

Note on sources: This statement is based on publicly available reporting and on statements issued by Indigenous Peoples’ organizations, as available on 13 July 2026. 

Indigenous Rights and Protected Areas Initiative

Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program, James E. Rogers College of Law, University of Arizona