Assam Forest Land: Lack of Mechanism Tempts Encroachers

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The lack of any well-planned mechanism or action plan to make forest lands free from encroachers have proved very costly for the green cover in the State.

The forest lands of the State are encroached upon by people from the neighbouring states and a section of people of the State.

The encroachment of the State forest areas from the neighbouring States is being tackled by the Court. It has a system for solution or settlement. However, the State Forest Department is bereft of any system to make its lands free from inside encroachers.

According to official sources, around four lakh people encroached upon forest lands in various forest reserves, national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in the State, including the hills in and around Guwahati. While some of the encroachers are tribal people living in forest areas for generations, some of the encroachers claim themselves to be erosion-affected ones. A large section among the encroachers of forest lands is immigrant Muslims. The hilltops in and around Guwahati are dotted with thousands of houses that are glaringly visible to the authorities concerned in the Forest department.

The eviction drives carried out by the Forest Department from time to time are nothing but wastage of funds as the Department has no mechanism to prevent the lands freed from encroachers from re-encroachment. The evicted people occupy the forest lands again after four or six months.

This is an issue that lays bare both the lack of planning and the lack of political will. An example of this effect will suffice. To conduct eviction drives in certain forest areas in Guwahati, the Forest Department sought Rs 4 crore from the government. One and a half years has already elapsed, but no fund for the purpose has been sanctioned. Eviction drives involve funds in huge amounts. Strangely enough, the Forest never seeks budgetary allocation for eviction drives from the Government.

In most of the forest areas, there is no distinct demarcation between forest and revenue lands in the State. In the absence of any clear-cut demarcation, people get no fear to encroach upon forest lands. Apart from funds, eviction drives cannot be successful unless there is a well-coordinated approach involving the police and the district administrations. Due to the lack of this collective coordination among the Forest Department, the police and the district administrations, eviction drives are often delayed.

Sources in the Forest Department said that the encroachers are not dissuaded unless they made out of the grid. However, encroachers get electricity connection, water supply facilities and road connectivity without any hindrance. Such facilities encourage the encroachers. Why do the authorities make such facilities available to the encroachers is a big question.

What is significant is that in most of the cases in Guwahati encroachers start erecting houses from hilltops, instead of fringe areas. According to official sources, the modus operandi is that the land mafia encroaches upon forest land only to sell them to others after a few years. This way they mint money under the very nose of the Forest authorities.

The encroachment of forest areas in the State will continue unabated unless the State Forest Department comes with a well-planned mechanism to check it and the Government as a whole has a political will to solve the menace.

Also Read: Will High Court Order to Evict Encroachers from Tribal Belts & Blocks be Obeyed? BJSM