A CORRESPONDENT
GOALPARA: The much-awaited eviction drive in Dohikata Reserve Forest in the Goalpara district to clear 1,143 bighas of illegally occupied forest land began on Sunday morning in the presence of huge numbers of personnel from the forest battalion, district police and Assam police commandos.
Goalpara DC Prodip Timung, accompanied by West Goalpara co-district commissioner Nabajeet Pathak and in charge ADC of the Revenue Department, Goalpara SSP Nabaneet Mahanta, and Goalpara DFO Tejas Mariswamy led and supervised the entire operation. The overall situation remained peaceful during the eviction process.
With about twenty excavators, the eviction team went on demolishing, targeting approximately 580 illegally built constructions, amid which there were both thatched-roof and RCC structures.
The police had to detain several persons, including two associated with the AIUDF who came in the way to obstruct the drive.
Meanwhile, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), in a press statement, expressed grave concern over the eviction process and termed it as an inhumane act. The party alleged that the residents have names included in the NRC, and the DFO had earlier assured them of not carrying on an eviction drive in the patta lands of a revenue village.
On the other hand, MK Yadava, Special Chief Secretary, Department of Forest and Environment, was also present and observed the entire drive. Later, talking to the media, he remarked, “These forest areas belonged to wild animals, especially elephant herds. Today, we have returned the area to them. Even as we are carrying out the drive, the wild herd is not far from here. It will minimise the man-elephant conflict at Dohikata and surrounding areas in the Goalpara district.”
Kripalochan Das (Dul), a frontline environmentalist representing the NGO Nature’s Beckon, said, “We wholeheartedly welcome the eviction drive and even urge the government to buy back patta lands near forests and join the small and fragmented jungles to give corridors and free space to the wildlife.”
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