autonomy in Northeast India. This article examines how the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council, despite formal authority over land governance, struggles to resolve disputes over grazing reserves and forest lands. Drawing on 12 semi-structured interviews, legal records, archival material and documentary analysis, the article argues that governance failures stem from the interplay of three structural constraints: uncertain land records, weak enforcement capacity and contested legitimacy. These problems are compounded by interstate boundary disputes, demographic anxieties and insurgent territorial claims. Rather than isolated administrative failures, the article shows that land and forest disputes are embedded in a self-reinforcing governance trap , a cycle in which documentary ambiguity, enforcement incapacity and legitimacy deficits reproduce persistent conflict. The study advances debates on legal pluralism, state legibility and autonomy in Northeast India by demonstrating how overlapping legal and political authorities generate this governance trap in constitutionally exceptional regions.