STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: Vast areas of land belonging to national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in Assam are under encroachment. This gloomy picture of the environment reminds all concerned in the state on World Environment Day. All, including the State Government, are set to observe World Environment Day (WED) tomorrow. According to statistics available with The Sentinel, 16,823.93 hectares
of land belonging to 11 national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in the state are under encroachment as of March 2023. The blame for this gloomy situation in the state goes to the Department of Environment and Forest. Lack of proper monitoring by field-level forest officials is the root cause of the problem. The field officials do not evict the encroachers soon after the encroachment, as though they allow the encroachers to anchor in forest areas.
According to the statistics, 3,740 hectares of the 85,000 hectares of land in Manas National Park and Tiger Reserve are under encroachment. Likewise, 682.94 hectares of land in Dibru-Saokhowa National Park, 500 hectares of Nameri National Park, 400 hectares of Barnadi Wildlife Sanctuary, 964 hectares of Borail Wildlife Sanctuary (West Block), 1,500 hectares of Borail Wildlife Sanctuary (East Block), 8,500 hectares of Sunai-Rupai Wildlife Sanctuary, 121.73 hectares of Bherjan-Borajan-Padumoni Wildlife Sanctuary, 10.50 hectares of Chakrasila Wildlife Sanctuary, 270 hectares of Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary, and 134.76 hectares of Laokhowa Wildlife Sanctuary are under encroachments.
After the BJP-led government came to the helm of affairs in 2016 at Dispur, the Forest Department is taking eviction drives from time to time. The department carried out an eviction drive in the Orang National Park and Tiger Reserve recently. The need of the hour is to evict encroachers from such land in phases and provide land to landless indigenous people, if any, elsewhere.
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