The entire Vangaitang range adjacent to the present-day Jiribam district was part of the Cachar kingdom at the beginning of the 19th century.

[3][4] In 1907, the Manipur government opened the "Jiribam valley" between the rivers and the Vangaitang range for agricultural settlement,[5] and, by 1911, 14,346 bighas of land is said to have been settled.

[9][e] Initially, Jiribam subdivision was formed to encompass the Vangaitang range from the Jiri River in the north and Tipaimukh in the south.

[12][13] The region was originally used by Meitei insurgent groups in the 1960s as a launching pad to access the training camps run by Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh).

[14] Security expert E. M. Rammohan states that the hilly region bounded by NH-37[f] in the north, Thangjing Hills in the east, Tipaimukh Road in the south, and the Jiribam–Tipaimukh Road on the west, was a "free zone", with minimal presence of security forces, which was adopted by UNLF, PLA and Hmar People's Convention–Democracy for setting up camps and bases.

[15] The PLA and UNLF are said to have entered this area after the Kuki-Naga conflict (in the 1990s) by helping resettle the displaced Kukis in Churachandpur district and obtaining land in return.

[17] The local residents complain that around the year 2000, the people of Durgapur were evicted and had to leave for the Cachar district in Assam.

According to the team, villages such as Durgapur and others were "full of Bangladesh Muslims, Bengalis and Bishnupriyas" but the lands owned by Meitei in Laimatai were not taken over by the "illegal migrants".

[1][23] When the ethnic conflict in Manipur erupted between the Meiteis and Kuki-Zo people on 3 May 2023, the Jiribam district remained relatively at peace for almost a year.

[17] Durgapur's Lamtai Khunou experienced an isolated instance of violence on 28 March 2024, when a bomb explosion damaged three shops owned by a businessman, with losses amounting to Rs.

Meitei mobs led by Arambai Tenggol started torching houses in the Jiribam area, prompting the Hmars and Thadou Kukis to flee to relief camps in neighbouring Assam.