The Assam government cleared down yet another “Reserve forest” in the Goalpara district. On September 24, 2,000 “illegal settlers” from 450 Muslim families of Bangladeshi descent were evicted from their illegal homes, which they constructed in the forest land on 55–60 hectares of forest land, in the Goalpara district. According to media reports, the eviction drive also included the removal of a number of government installations from the area, which will help avoid conflicts between humans and elephants. Islamists invaded the reserve woodland during the previous Congress government from 2001 to 2016.
A large posse of security guards and civil and forest officials saw the eviction take place at the 118-hectare “Bandarmatha Reserve Forest” in the Lakhipur Range. The eviction drive is being carried out in compliance with the Gauhati High Court order which instructed to clear all the encroachments from all reserve forest areas in the state. The state’s highest rate of man-elephant conflict is seen in Goalpara, according to Tejas Mariswamy, Divisional Forest Officer for Goalpara. He said that when the area has been cleared, an afforestation effort will be conducted to make it ideal for elephant habitation.
55–60 hectares are being cleared by us. This place was home to roughly 2,000 illegal settlers living in 450 families. We’ve organised flag marches, told people where our boundary is, and asked them to leave the marked area throughout the past week,” DFO Mariswamy stated. He said that the exercise was amicably concluded because the majority of those who had unlawfully established in the area have left. Man-elephant conflict has claimed the lives of twenty-five persons on average in the area for the past several years. “Evicting the encroachers from the wildlife areas will certainly reduce the male-elephant conflict in the state,” he added.
The DFO added that throughout the past year, nine eviction operations were conducted in Goalpara, clearing nearly 550 hectares of encroached forest area. The high court, to which we are beholden, has issued a clear directive to remove all encroachments in Goalpara forests. In addition to the Bandarmatha Reserve Forest in the Lakhipur Range, the administration had already removed similar residents from Kumarkali and Nalbari.
“All three reserve forests will be cleared once Bandarmatha has been cleared. There is a connection between these three woodlands. Elephant-human conflict will decrease as a result of its assistance with movement,” he stated.
