New Delhi, May 5 -- Quietly disappearing behind the beauty of the Chittagong Hill Tracts in southeastern Bangladesh is an ancient community - that of the Lushai. Today, they are not only changing their culture but are standing on the verge of an existential crisis. They are being uprooted and compelled to integrate into the larger populace, quite literally for the sake of survival.

This bullet wound was made painfully clear to me by a retired police officer Khipyapara, Rangamati, Lawma Lushai. Reflecting on the ground reality, he said, "We are now at the brink of existential crisis".

On Verge of Cultural Extinction

Lushai families or Mizo tribes were originally concentrated in the Rangamati regions only, a few of which survive today ne...