Guwahati: The eviction drive in Assam’s Pabha Reserve Forest carried on for a second day on Wednesday. The eviction effort is being conducted to prevent unauthorised encroachment on forest lands.
As many as 202 households were evicted from Mohguli today during the eviction effort, which was carried out by officers of the Lakhimpur district government and the forest department.
According to officials, the goal is to free 450 hectares of forest area from intruders. The first day of eviction has already resulted in the clearing of 250 hectares.
On January 9, there were reports that the Pabha Reserve forest’s 5 sq km of land would be taken from around 500 households by the Lakhimpur district administration. According to the directions of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, eviction drives were conducted the following day.
The reserve forest covers 46 square kilometres, or almost 15 kilometres to the south of the NH-15. The administration said that 507 Muslim families were residing illegitimately on forest land.
The families submitted a petition to the district authorities, according to a representative of the Lakhimpur forest division, asking for land rights in the forest region under the Forest Rights Act of 2006.
“We challenged the petition as they do not belong to any tribal community. In September, the district authority finally rejected their petition and allowed us to initiate steps to free the forest land,” the officer added.
The Act affirms the rights of tribal communities that live in forests and other traditional forest dwellers to forest resources. These communities depended on these resources for a range of purposes, including residence, a means of subsistence, and other sociocultural necessities.
The forest official added that most of the house owners live in different places. “They have either given their houses on rent or hired caretakers for them,” the officer said.
The official added that the families were served notices in September last year.
Lakhimpur superintendent of police (SP), Bedanta Madhab Rajkhowa said 600 personnel of state police and CRPF have been deployed for the exercise and a mock drill was conducted by the forces on Sunday, TOI reported.
“We are prepared to conduct the eviction drive in a smooth and peaceful manner as far as possible,” he added.
Nearly 3,000 hectares of public and forest areas have been cleared from encroachment since the state’s BJP-led chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma-led government assumed office in May 2021.
The first and major eviction drive was conducted at Dholpur in Darrang district, around 55 km from Guwahati, in September 2021.