GUWAHATI: The Assam government on Sunday resumed its eviction drive against illegal settlers on forest land. The drive, carried out in some eastern, western and northern Assam districts earlier, was halted in the aftermath of music icon Zubeen Garg’s mysterious death in Singapore.
It was resumed in western Assam’s Goalpara district. The forest department demolished 588 houses spread across 153 hectares at the Dahikata Reserve Forest.
“Eviction notices were served on 588 households, days ahead of the drive,” Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Goalpara, Tejas Mariswami told TNIE.
He also said that upon receiving the notices, 30 to 40 per cent of the illegal settlers had vacated their houses by taking along valuables. “There was no major resistance or confrontation as such. Everything passed off peacefully,” Mariswami said.
A large majority of the evicted people are Bengali Muslims. The Dahikata Reserve Forest is an important elephant habitat.
“We will revive this elephant habitat through a plantation drive which will be launched in March or April next year. The plantations will help curb incidents of human-elephant conflict which is common in some parts of Goalpara,” the DFO said.
“We are going reserve forest by reserve forest. We have cleared encroachment at eight reserve forests. There are some more areas where encroachment has to be cleared,” he further stated.
Authorities deployed a large number of security personnel and heavy machinery, including excavators and tractors, for the eviction drive. Goalpara District Magistrate Prodip Timung told the media that the drive was carried out in accordance with the directions of Gauhati High Court.
An evicted person told the media that the state government would not be able to divert people’s attention from the “Justice for Zubeen Garg” demand by carrying out eviction drive.
A few days ago, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had stated that the eviction drive would continue across the state. He asserted that “illegal Miyas” would not have peace as long as he remained in office. Miya is a pejorative term used in Assam to refer to Bengali Muslims.