Spills from the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) well sites have severely destroyed Changpang and Tsorri villages in the district. More than two thousand people have seen their farmlands, forests and water sources they rely on for their survival, contaminated because of the spillage. Protesters, mainly the students, have been demanding the state government to frame modalities for oil fields as the spillage has caused extensive environmental hazard in the area. The Nagaland government has constituted a cabinet sub-committee on petroleum and natural gas to frame modalities but it is yet to complete the process.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) began extraction since 1981 after acquiring permission from the Government of Nagaland in 1973 to explore oil and natural gas in the villages without obtaining the Free Prior and Informed Consent of the indigenous communities as per the national and international law Art. About 1.02 metric million tonnes of crude oil were extracted between 1981 to 1994, however, the ONGC has not disclosed the quantity of oil extracted during exploration in the period 1971 to 1981.The ONGC drilled 29 wells in the Changpang area during the year 1973-1994. Out of these, 21 wells in Changpang area were oil bearing and 2 wells were gas bearing.