Guwahati, Feb. 6: The descendants of Koch royal families will set up a forum to represent them at international platforms.

The forum will have its first meeting during the two-day programme to commemorate Bir Chilarai, which is organised by the Consortium of Koch Royal Families at Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra from Thursday. The consortium will decide on the name of forum during the event.

Assam is observing Chilarai Divas tomorrow.

Descendents from Cooch Behar (Bengal), Bijni, Sidli, Khaspur and Beltola (Assam), Panga (Bangladesh) and Chapa, Morang and Chunchuni (Nepal) will attend the meeting.

"The royal lineage is spread across parts of Bengal, Bihar, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal, which were once part of Kamtapur. The very existence of the Koch royal family is facing a crisis. Our culture, tradition and history need international limelight," Pranab Narayan Dev, the general secretary of the consortium, said here today.

"In order to do so, all the royal families of the dynasty have to come under a platform and discuss on how to pitch the dynasty globally. In order to do so, all the descendants of the family will have to contribute and chart out a plan."

The Koch dynasty ruled from 1515 to 1949.

Dev said the Brahmaputra valley of Assam is inhabited by descendants of Bir Chilarai and the Barak valley has descendants of Kamal Narayan, while Nir Singh's descendants are at Panga in Bangladesh and Bhutan. "Though there are no royal families in Nepal, there are more than 2 lakh Koch people living there," he said.