Assam: Over 1,000 bighas of forest lands cleared from encroachers at Paikan

Our Bureau

GUWAHATI/GOALPARA: After Chapor, the administration carried out a massive eviction drive with 50 excavators and over 1,000-strong forces at Paikan Reserve Forest in Goalpara to free 1,038 bighas of land from encroachers. Several RCC constructions were demolished during the drive.

On the other hand, different minority organizations have been staging protests across the state against the eviction drives at Chapor and Paikan. Several AIUDF MLAs went to Paikan but could not reach the actual spot, as the police prevented them from going ahead. A person named Faijul made an attempt to commit suicide by hanging. He is currently under treatment in the hospital.

According to sources, the encroached area had eight mosques, four schools, a madrassa, and a Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) scheme.

Paikan was declared a reserve forest in 1982. After a few years, people from the neighbouring districts started to encroach upon the reserve forest land at Ashudubi, Bidyapara, and Betbari. As many as 1,080 families encroached upon 1,038 bighas of land in the reserve forest. The administration served notices to these families to vacate the reserve forest lands in 2024. The administration served them fresh notices recently before carrying out the eviction drive.

According to the Goalpara District Administration, most of the encroachers were from the Barpeta district, and they belong to a particular religious community. Around 70 percent of the encroachers vacated the area and moved to other places after the issuance of the latest eviction notice. The administration conducted the eviction drive today to vacate the land from those who stayed put.

On the other hand, leaders of various minority organizations said that a particular community is the target of the current inhuman eviction drive in the state. "If the administration doesn't rehabilitate the evicted people, we'll carry out a massive protest bringing everything to a grinding halt in the state," one of the minority leaders said.

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