A forest official burns garbage at Sonai Rupai reserve forest, where a huge portion of the forest has been encroached upon, in Assam’s Sonitpur district. File picture

Guwahati, Aug. 19: Balipara reserve forest in Assam’s Sonitpur district was supposed to have got an ecological battalion to protect its 18,972 hectares. But 10,000 hectares of it have been encroached upon by 10,000-odd dwellers, leaving little room for the Centre’s afforestation plans to take root.

The Assam government has been unable to provide land for the afforestation scheme in the reserve, thanks to massive encroachments. Of the total 2,500 hectares of land required, only 500 hectares are free of encroachments.

Acting on a request made by Dispur, the National Afforestation and Eco Development Board endorsed a proposal to raise two eco-task force battalions in the state.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the board, held under the chairmanship of the minister of environment and forests in January last year.

The Ecological Task Forces Scheme was initiated by the ministry of defence in 1982 to involve ex-servicemen in afforestation and eco-development programmes in remote areas to help restore degraded ecosystems through soil conservation and water resource management.

The scheme was also a means to create employment opportunities for retired army personnel, mainly in rural areas.

“The land which will be handed over to the defence authorities to execute the scheme will have to be free of encroachments. We have written to the Centre about this problem,” a forest official said.

A recent meeting between World Wildlife Fund representatives and the Assam forest department also brought up the issue.

The promulgation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act of 2006, which seeks to recognise traditional forest dwellers and grant them rights of occupation of forest areas, is, however, a hurdle in the eviction process.

“Pressure is already being exerted on the government not to evict these dwellers. Now that the law is also in place, chances of eviction will be diminished further,” a source said.

The other battalion will be stationed at Haltugaon in Kokrajhar district, which is comparatively free of encroachment, thanks to a massive eviction drive undertaken by the BTC authorities.

“Once the army moves in, it will be a deterrent for encroachers,” the forest official said.

Each of the two battalions will have five companies. Each of the companies will have 600 “protectors”.

Work is under way for raising the battalions, which will function under the Territorial Army.

The idea behind deploying eco-battalions in the two spots was to restore the green cover where they have been destroyed over the years.