Tezpur/Nagaon (Assam), Jan 6 (PTI) The Assam government on Tuesday completed an eviction drive to clear alleged encroachment from around 6,200 bighas (nearly 830 hectares) of land in Burhachapori Wildlife Sanctuary, affecting 710 families, officials said.
The eviction drive began on the morning of January 5 to clear the encroached land inside the forest, spread across Sonitpur and Nagaon districts, and it was completed on Tuesday evening, Sonitpur District Commissioner Ananda Kumar Das said.
“Nearly 710 families had illegally settled and occupied about 6,200 bighas of forest land inside the protected wildlife sanctuary. Over the course of the two-day operation, the administration successfully evicted all illegal occupants and freed the encroached land,” he added.
The eviction was carried out in several areas falling under the Tezpur Sadar and Dhekiajuli revenue circles, including Jamuktol, Arimari, Siyalichar, Baghetapu, Galatidubi, Lathimari, Kundulichar, Purba Dubramari and Batulichar.
“After the clearance of about 40 per cent of the land from the clutches of land encroachers, the Sonitpur district administration launched the eviction operation in the remaining land,” another official said.
The alleged encroachers had built houses and cultivated crops inside the Burhachapari Wildlife Sanctuary, he added.
Most of the people living there had demolished their houses and carried household items to other destinations by themselves, but many encroachers stayed back on the said land due to severe cold, requesting the administration to give time for harvesting their crops.
“Despite the encroachers’ request not to evict them in the ongoing winter season, they will not be excused by administration from the ongoing eviction drive as they were illegally staying in the forest areas,” Das said.
Sonitpur Senior Superintendent of Police Barun Purakayastha said all encroached areas have been cleared without any untoward incident.
A huge security arrangement was put in place with the deployment of over 300 police personnel. During the two-day drive, 36 excavator machines and 60 tractors were pressed into service to carry out the eviction smoothly.
Commenting on the eviction drive, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in an X post said, “The rule is clear – Mess Around and Find Out! IYKYK. You don’t encroach on our lands, our culture and then cry victim when the JCBs arrive, you just make way for them.” IYKYK is an acronym of ‘if you know, you know’.
“The ongoing eviction drive in Sonitpur will spare no one. Because all we care for is ASSAM and its PEOPLE,” he added.
In one of the largest eviction drives in Assam, the administration had cleared 2,099 hectare of land in Burhachapori Wildlife Sanctuary and nearby villages in February last year, which affected around 12,800 people.
Later in July, one person was killed and at least seven others were injured in a clash between alleged encroachers and forest guards at the Sanctuary when the alleged illegal occupiers had returned and tried to recapture the evicted land.
Burhachapori Wildlife Sanctuary is spread across 44.06 sq km on the southern bank of Brahmaputra. It is located around 180 km east of Guwahati and 40 km south of Tezpur town.
The protected forest forms an integral part of the Laokhowa-Burhachapori eco-system and is a notified buffer zone of the Kaziranga National Park & Tiger Reserve. It is home to one-horned rhinoceros, tiger, leopard, wild buffalo, hog deer, wild pig and elephants.
Burhachapori’s bird list includes the highly endangered Bengal florican, black-necked stork, mallard, open billed stork, teal and whistling duck, among others.
It has been a reserve forest since 1974 under Sonitpur district forest department and it was declared a wildlife sanctuary in July 1995. PTI TR COR TR NN
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