Silchar, Sept. 10: Under pressure from tribal settlers not to go ahead with its eviction drive in the reserved forest areas, the Assam forest department is now toying with the idea of allowing those tribals who settled there before 1980 to stay on.
However, the forest directorate has decided to evict non-tribals and infiltrators who had grabbed large tracts of forest land before the proposed cut-off year. A senior forest directorate official today said a large number of Bangladeshis have encroached deep into the forests and made it clear that a Supreme Court directive asking the state government to weed out encroachers from the forests would soon be implemented.
He said though the apex court had set September 30 as the deadline for the completion of the eviction operation in the reserved forests, the authorities could not undertake such a drive because of the monsoons. The court had expressed its concern over the encroachments and the fast depletion of timber wealth. The district forest authorities have already drawn up a list of illegal settlers in the reserved forests.
The forest directorate has also taken up a long-term national afforestation programme in the districts. The programme, to be implemented by the joint forest management committees in each of the state’s 24 districts will aim at regenerating the forests, make sure that fuelwood and fodder are available, and conserve non-timber forest produce like bamboo, cane and medicinal plants.
The programme, under the Tenth Plan period, will also stress conservation of natural resources through active involvement of the people.
Each management committee in the districts will comprise 29 members who will be drawn from the forest department, panchayats and local organisations. At least seven women will be inducted in each committee.
According to official sources, 44 such committees will be set up in the south Assam districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi. In Karimganj district, nearly 4,500 hectares of the forest area will be covered under this project in the next five years at an estimated cost of Rs 7.35 crore. In Hailakandi, 400 hectares will be covered where eight lakh seedlings of teak, gamari, cham, sundi, garjan and simul trees will be planted.
Tripura front: Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee last night floated the Trinamul state committee with the objective of fighting the ruling Left Front in Tripura. This has dashed the Congress-INPT combine’s hopes for a united one-to-one fight against the Left Front, reports our Agartala correspondent.
