Road Constructed By Encroaching Upon Assam land

A CORRESPONDENT

LAKHIMPUR: Giving a new dimension to the illegal process of encroachment from across the border in the land of Assam belonging to the Ranga Reserve Forest under Lakhimpur district, a road has been constructed by the neighbouring State of Arunachal Pradesh.

The journalists of North Lakhimpur Press Club (NLPC) witnessed this clear evidence of another aggression in the land of Assam from the neighbouring State on Thursday. The road has been constructed through the district in order to connect two places of Arunachal Pradesh, named Gumtu and Kimin.

The journalists of NLPC on Thursday visited the Ranga Reserve Forest while conducting the regular programme ‘Gaonloi Jaon Bolok’ (Let’s Go to Village) in the lager Phoolbari area located in the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border area under Lakhimpur district. During the visit, the journalists witnessed not only the construction of the road but also experienced how the natural resources under the said reserve forest had been destroyed by decaying the hills and cutting trees and plants by using excavators, thereby causing alarming threat to the bio-diversity. The road construction work has been implemented in the land of Assam by the aggressors by entering at least two km towards Lakhimpur from the inter-State boundary line, as alleged by the local people. Thus, they have continued the violation of status quo to be maintained by both neighbouring States as instructed by the Supreme Court regarding the inter-State border dispute.

There is no border pillar demarcating the boundaries of both States in the disputed area and the aggressors have taken the advantage of this to develop their process of encroachment in the land of the State.

While visiting the reserve forest, the beat officer of the Phoolbari Beat under Harmoti Forest Range Office, H Rahman accompanied the team of media persons. Regarding the issue, the beat officer informed them that some people from Arunachal Pradesh conducted an unknown survey work in the Pabho Nola under the reserve forest on March 4. “Then we (forest officials) told them not to launch any survey there and then they went away. Following the development, we saw the implementation of the road construction work on March 7 in the same place. Then I immediately prevented them from continuing the road construction work further with the help of a team of police personnel from Dolohat Police Outpost and Laluk Police station. Since then no construction work has been conducted there,” said the Beat Officer.

However, the media persons witnessed a long stretch of the constructed road during the visit which is the outcome of a process of many days. While constructing the road, the natural hills were decayed by using excavators and natural flow of several streams was blocked. As a result of it, threat of massive devastation and inundation in the downstream areas of Phoolbari in the forthcoming rainy season has increased. Moreover, the deforestation done has caused threat to the wild elephants due to which they created havoc in the populated area of No. 1 and No 2 Hatiyemora villages along with others under Phoolbari area in the search of food.

Notably, the Divisional Forest Officer of Lakhimpur Forest Division and any representative from the Lakhimpur district administration has not yet visited the tense area till date. Further, the State Forest Minister has also paid no attention to the burning issue of massive encroachment in the forest land of Assam belonging to Lakhimpur district. In this regard, the local people have expressed strong reaction and demanded the State Government to initiate due steps to save the natural resources from the aggressive encroachers from across the border.

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