Guwahati: The Assam government will launch one of the largest eviction operations in its recent history on Tuesday, July 29, deploying more than 2,200 personnel and over 100 bulldozers to clear 11,000 bighas of allegedly encroached land in Uriamghat, within the Rengma Reserve Forest near the Assam-Nagaland border.
The three-day operation will target a cluster of settlements in areas such as Sonari Beel, Madhupur, Kherbari, Doloni Pathar, Bidyapur, and Ithaghat, villages largely inhabited by minority Muslim families.
Ready for a challenge? Click here to take our quiz and show off your knowledge!
Officials believe that many residents are either undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh or migrants from other parts of Assam, West Bengal, and Bihar. They report that some families control as much as 400 bighas of forest land.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who visited the area on July 25, said the state was acting to “restore law and order” and eliminate what he described as an epicenter of illegal activity. He added that a list of encroachers would be sent to the respective district administrations for further action.
However, the drive has sparked serious political and regional backlash, most sharply from the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-Niki), which accused Assam of exploiting eviction as a “strategic cover” to annex Naga ancestral land.
Ready for a challenge? Click here to take our quiz and show off your knowledge!
In a strongly worded statement, NSCN (Niki) condemned the operation as a deliberate and long-planned campaign to seize Naga territory under the pretext of clearing illegal encroachment.
The group alleged that Assam is using colonial-era demarcations, made without Naga consent and now labeled as part of the “Disturbed Area Belt”, as a legal smokescreen to station its forces permanently.
“The Assam government has double-crossed the Nagaland government,” said the NSCN (Niki) statement, accusing Assam of violating the agreed-upon status quo and stationing police in disputed zones. “It is a well-planned and precisely executed attempt to occupy Naga ancestral lands.”
The NSCN also criticised the Nagaland government for its “tokenistic” approach to border protection, accusing it of favouring urban postings over bolstering security along sensitive border zones. It called on the Naga public to pressure political groups into defending ancestral lands rather than just soliciting contributions.
Leader of the Opposition in Assam, Debabrata Saikia, voiced concern that many of the affected residents are victims of the 1978 Chungajan conflict, who were encouraged by then-Chief Minister Golap Borbora to settle near the border for demographic consolidation. He urged the state to consult historical relief records before displacing these families.
Officials clarified that the government officially designated only Saluk Pathar for resettlement, while they deemed all other settlements illegal.
Uriamghat, divided into three sectors (A, B, and C), is a long-standing flashpoint in the Assam-Nagaland boundary dispute. Sector A, which borders Nagaland’s Aghunaqa area, already hosts district-level offices and government infrastructure established by Nagaland, signalling competing territorial claims.
Nagaland’s Public Health Engineering Minister, Jacob Zhimomi, toured Sectors A and B on July 21, alongside tribal and youth groups, to assess potential influxes of displaced people. Nagaland has since issued advisories to border residents to remain vigilant.
Meanwhile, Meghalaya and Manipur have intensified their surveillance efforts. Meghalaya has instructed all Deputy Commissioners to monitor the situation, while Manipur has called for biometric tracking and temporary sheltering of any displaced individuals pending legal verification.
With both regional tensions and humanitarian concerns mounting, the Uriamghat eviction drive is shaping up to be more than a local administrative action; it is becoming a crucible for inter-state relations, ethnic politics, and the unresolved question of land and identity in Northeast India.
The outcome of the drive and the response from neighboring states and insurgent groups may well set the tone for how Assam and its neighbors navigate the overlapping fault lines of law enforcement, historical claims, and ethnic security in the volatile border regions.