On April 17, 1975, my family boarded a boat on the southern shores of Cambodia when news crackled through my mother’s shortwave radio that the Communist Khmer Rouge regime had taken power.

Adiram Reang, an indigenous farmer who belongs to the Autonomous District Council village of Bagmara, in Dhalai district, 125 km from the state capital Agartala, wanted to own Kanak Kaich bamboo ...