North Lakhimpur: The Lakhimpur district administration in Assam, on Wednesday, cleared around 200 hectares of forest land from “illegal encroachers” from the Pabho reserve forest on the second day of the eviction drive.
The eviction drive was carried out with 60 earthmovers, tractors and other devices in presence of 600 personnel from Assam police and central paramilitary forces.
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On Wednesday (January 11), the eviction drive levelled agriculture fields with standing crops, remains of shifted houses in Mohghuli village of the encroached area in Lakhimpur district of Assam.
In the evicted area of the ‘encroached’ forest land of Pabho there were 202 housing structures, which included PMAY houses and Anganwadi Centres, which were already vacated before the commencement of the eviction drive.
According to Assam police the eviction drive was carried out peacefully without any untoward incident.
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Though many people of the region welcomed the eviction drive by the Assam government to reclaim forest lands, many also expressed displeasure for not granting more time to harvest their crops from the fields.
Nowboicha MLA Bharat Chandra Narah also visited the eviction sites. Speaking to the media the Assam MLA said that the eviction was one sided in nature as the people had already vacated their homes and moved their belongings after receiving notices from the district authorities.
Narah said that people cooperated with the eviction drive and no one resisted it.
“The eviction was carried out only in the form of destroying the crops like mustard, cabbage, potatoes and other vegetables and levelling the fields. These people should have given more time to cut their crops or catch the fishes from their ponds,” said Narah, who is from the opposition Congress party.
Earlier, the Lakhimpur district authority in Assam cleared 250 hactares of forest land from “illegal encroachers” from the Pabho reserve forest.
It may be mentioned that Pabho reserve forest in Lakhimpur district of Assam was declared a reserve forest in 1941.
Originally consisting of 4628.88 hectares of forest land, the landscape of Pabho has been changing due to the change of course by river Ranganadi and its adjoining tributaries in flood.
According to Assam forest department, out of 2560.25 hectares of the reserved forest, only 29 hectares are were free of any ‘encroachment’.
The Lakhimpur district forest department in Assam is being largely blamed for the prolonged ‘encroachment’ of the Pabho reserve forest.
Many evicted people alleged that the Assam forest department used to collect money on many times in the past to allow them to stay and grow crops on the land.
The Lakhimpur district administration in Assam and the state forest department arranged a plot of land measuring approximately three bighas in the eviction area to allow 83 evicted families to stay temporarily.
However there are no provision of basic amenities for these evicted people on that land.