The first day of the eviction drive launched to clear around 11,000 bighas of forest land in Uriamghat in upper Assam’s Golaghat district saw “peaceful” demolition of around 120 shops and business establishments in the Bidyapur market area, reclaiming 4.2 hectares of “encroached” land.

The massive eviction drive, the sixth carried out in Assam since June 16, witnessed heavy deployment of forest and security personnel, and over 100 excavators, of which 40 were used on Tuesday.

The government intends to clear 11,000 bighas of encroached forest land, which will affect 2,000 families, around 80 per cent of whom have left the area.

The Uriamghat eviction is the sixth major eviction drive after the ones carried out in Goalpara (two), Nalbari, Dhubri and Lakhimpur districts since June 16, affecting over 5,200 families, mostly Bengali-speaking Muslims.

Officials could not say how long the drive in the Rengma forest would continue, except that it would continue till the area is cleared.

“There was no protest, no opposition. It was peaceful. We had divided the 4.2-hectare area into nine sectors and deployed adequate manpower. The Nagaland administration cooperated with us. We have completed one-fourth of the area today. Assessment is still on,” said an Assam government official.

The Rengma forest borders Nagaland, which has put its border areas on alert against the possible influx of people displaced in the ongoing drive in neighbouring Assam.

At the end of the first day, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma posted on X: “People of Assam are victims of the mass-scale encroachment, demographic alteration and violence which is caused by illegal settlers. They (people) are firmly behind our govt in our crackdown against encroachment and realise the need to reclaim what’s
truly ours.”

Though the eviction met with no opposition in the Muslim-majority area cleared on Tuesday, two youths residing in the area told the media: “We have nowhere to go. We will live and die here. Our family settled here in 1973. Those who do not vote here have left with their belongings but those who vote from here have not left. We will go wherever the state government gives us land to resettle.”

Sarma, after a stocktaking visit to Uriamghat on July 25, had said the settlers are from Cachar, Sribhumi, Dhubri, Barpeta, Nagaon, Hojai and Morigaon districts.

Last week, he had said that around 3,000 bighas of forest land had been cleared by encroachers for betel nut and leaf plantation
in Uriamghat.

“A forest area which was full of teak and sal trees has been replaced by betel nut cultivation. Each encroacher has grabbed up to 200-300 bighas of land for betel nut cultivation. 3,000 bighas have been encroached according to a drone survey,” Sarma had said.