As any as 6,800 sq kilometers of land in Assam has been either wiped out due to erosion or encroached upon by people within the state and by four neighboring states.
Assam Land and Revenue Minister Jogen Mohan while replying to a query by leader of the opposition, Debabrata Saikia, in the House on Friday said that over 5.35 lakh bighas (or 716 sqkm) of land has been wiped out or eroded by flooded rivers in the last two decades.
The annual waves of erosion have wiped out 1,141 villages inhabited by over 58,000 families.
Minister Mohan said that of these erosion-hit families, 5,028 have been issued landless citizen certificates and another 23,995 families have been given land allotments.
He said that four neighbouring states – Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya – together have encroached over 332 sq km of Assam’s forest and revenue land.