North Lakhimpur: Officials from the Assam forest department were in tenterhooks as encroachers built structures on the disputed land on the Kakoi-Rajgarh area of Lakhimpur district on the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh inter-state boundary on Sunday.
Report says, after receiving reports of an alleged encroachment on disputed land, a team of forest officials led by a Range Forest Officer visited Kakoi-Rajgarh area of Kakoi Reserve Forest of Lakhimpur.
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The official found people from neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh were already erecting a traditional house made of bamboo and palm leaves.
As the authority opposed and asked to stop the construction, the alleged encroachers from Arunachal Pradesh claimed that the land belongs to them. The encroacher also confessed that a house had already existed there, which they were reconstructing.
The forest personnel from Lakhimpur could not perform any action like eviction and halt of work by the alleged encroachment.
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The land dispute between the two neighbouring states on their borders at Kakoi-Rajgarh in Lakhimpur district has a long and eventful history.
On March 17, 2020 Lakhimpur forest department carried out demolition drive in Kakoi-Rajgarh area. The authority pulled down structures allegedly built by encroachers from across the boundary in Arunachal Pradesh.
Reports further state that, on December 2021 skirmishes erupted between Assam forest personnel and Arunachal Pradesh encroachers at Kakoi-Rajgarh area when the former visited the boundary area from North Lakhimpur.
On January 18, 2023, people from Arunachal Pradesh side of the boundary opposed and resisted the joint survey work by both the neighbouring states in Kakoi area.
Authorities of both sides carried out several meetings and initiatives to address the long-standing boundary dispute in the Kakoi area of Lakhimpur district and the Papum Pare district of Arunachal Pradesh, as reported.