Assam: Eviction drive in Nagaon clears 795 hectares of forest, displacing 1,500 families
Guwahati: In a massive eviction drive on Saturday, the Assam administration cleared nearly 795 hectares of reserved forest land at Lutimari in Nagaon district, displacing around 1,500 families who had been living there for decades.
Officials said the operation, carried out with hundreds of armed personnel, followed a three-month eviction notice served earlier to the residents.
The government maintains that the move is essential for forest protection and reducing human–elephant conflict.
According to district officials, the residents were initially given two months to vacate the area. Later, responding to local requests, the administration granted an additional one-month extension, making it a total of three months.
A senior official said, “The families themselves requested more time to move. We agreed. They were fully aware of the deadline.”
By Saturday morning, over 1,100 families had already dismantled their homes, both kutcha and pucca structures, and moved out with their belongings. During the formal demolition drive, the administration cleared the remaining homes.
Several evicted families told reporters that they had lived in the area for 40 years, unaware that the land was classified as reserved forest.
One resident said, “We removed our houses as ordered. But now we have nowhere to go. If the government had arranged land for us, it would have been better. We want proper rehabilitation.”
Special Chief Secretary (Forest) M.K. Yadav said the eviction would help restore the forest ecosystem and reduce rising cases of human–elephant conflict in the region.
He stated, “Clearing encroachment from forest land is essential to prevent conflict between wildlife and humans. This is a conservation-driven operation.”
Since the BJP came to power in Assam in 2016, multiple districts have seen large-scale eviction drives, mostly in Muslim-majority, Bengali-speaking settlements, according to rights groups and independent reports.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has repeatedly defended these operations, calling them essential for protecting public land. He has said that more than 160 sq km of land has been freed from encroachment since he took office in May 2021.
Several displaced people said their families had migrated to the area decades ago after their ancestral lands were lost to Brahmaputra river erosion, a major environmental problem in Assam.
One elderly resident recalled, “Our land was eaten by the river many years ago. We came here to survive. We didn’t know this was forest land.”
With the Lutimari operation, another major ecological zone has been cleared under the state government’s declared zero-tolerance policy on encroachments on forest and government land.
Officials said the cleared land will now be used for “restoration and regeneration of natural forest cover.”