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The Assam The federal government on Sunday (November 9, 2025) started an eviction drive to clear alleged encroachment on 1,140 bighas (over 376 acres) of forest land in Goalpara district, affecting almost 600 households, officers mentioned.
In response to Goalpara District Commissioner Prodip Timung, the train goes “on peacefully” to clear the encroached space in Dahikata Reserve Forest.
“There have been 580 households who had encroached on 1,140 bighas of land. The notices had been issued to them greater than 15 days in the past to vacate the areas,” he advised reporters.
Round 70% of the “unlawful settlers” of the realm have already left the place after getting the notices, whereas the remaining are within the technique of vacating their homes, Mr. Timung mentioned.
“Although we had set two days for the eviction drive, the administration hopes to finish the train right now. Thus far, we have now not obtained any resistance. We’re demolishing the remaining homes on the encroached land,” he added.
The District Commissioner mentioned the district administration engaged enough safety personnel and used dozens of excavators together with scores of tractors through the eviction train.
“We’ve got divided the realm into 5 blocks, and in just one block, some persons are nonetheless there. Within the different blocks, 80% of the individuals have left,” he added.
Mr. Timung mentioned that the eviction drive is underway as per the Gauhati Excessive Court docket directives, with three petitions concerning the operation heard earlier by the Court docket.
One other senior official mentioned the alleged encroachers are largely from the Bengali-speaking Muslim group. Abdul Karim, one of many affected individuals, claimed that the individuals within the space have been residing there for a number of many years.
“If we had been encroachers, why did the federal government give us electrical energy strains, bathrooms, and different amenities? We’ve got Aadhaar playing cards and all land paperwork, however nonetheless we’re being handled as outsiders,” he mentioned. Particular Chief Secretary (Forest) MK Yadava claimed that the evicted space falls beneath the elephant hall and clearing of the land from encroachment will assist scale back man-animal battle.
Because the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led authorities got here to energy in 2021, it has carried out a collection of evictions to clear alleged encroachments on land, largely affecting the Bengali-speaking Muslim inhabitants.
On November 3, the Assam Chief Minister asserted that eviction drives to clear encroachments will proceed, and “unlawful Miyas” can not have peace beneath his authorities.
‘Miya’ is initially a pejorative time period used for Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam, and the non-Bengali-speaking individuals typically determine them as Bangladeshi immigrants.
In recent times, activists from the group have began adopting this time period as a gesture of defiance.
On July 21, the CM had mentioned that 1.29 lakh bighas (over 42,500 acres) have been cleared of encroachment within the final 4 years, and round 29 lakh bighas (greater than 9.5 lakh acres) of land are nonetheless encroached within the State.
The CM had claimed that these large quantities of land had been beneath encroachment of “unlawful Bangladeshis and uncertain residents” within the State.
Printed – November 09, 2025 03:41 pm IST