Eviction drive to clear forest land of encroachment in Assam’s Lumding forestThe Assam government launched a two-day eviction drive to remove illegal settlers from Lumding reserve forest in Hojai district in compliance with a Gauhati High Court order, officials said. This comes a month and a half after an anti-encroachment exercise in the Gorukhuti area of Darrang district in which two people were killed and over 20 injured. The eviction drive was peaceful on Monday as most of the people had left the place in the last few days following counselling by the district administration about the high court order to make the forest encroachment-free, Hojai Deputy Commissioner Anupam Choudhury said. Tight security measures were in place with the deployment of seven additional companies, including four CRPF and three Assam Police battalions, to prevent any untoward incident during the exercise.

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The forest, a major habitat for elephants, is spread over 22,403 hectares of land out of which 500 hectares are under encroachment at present, an official said. In the first phase, the drive was conducted in Kamarpani and Betnala areas of the forest, Choudhury said. The District Administration has engaged elephants of the forest department and requisitioned excavators to clear the land. The illegal settlers belong to a mixed Population of the minority and tribal communities. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters in Guwahati that most of the illegal settlers have land in different places and they mostly encroach for Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture or business purposes.