Encroachment in an Assam reserve forest. Telegraph picture

Golaghat, Sept. 5: Nur Hussain was 17 when his father Abul settled inside Rengma reserve forest in Golaghat district.

The five-member family from Dhubri district was among the few who had set up huts on the southern part of the reserve forest.

“When we came, Rengma was a dense forest where nobody dared to enter. We cleared just three bighas of land by a hilly stream where we grew vegetables,” Hussain said while visiting the nearest Sarupathar community health centre for treatment of his 10-year-old daughter.

Hussain, now 38, is a settled farmer inside the reserve forest and has forgotten the name of his birthplace.

“I am a farmer and will remain one till death. I do not have plans to leave this place as my father came with his family and settled here,” Hussain said.

It took almost 21 years to encroach upon the entire 13,921.68 hectare area of the reserve forest, rich in natural resources, in the border district of Assam.

At present, Rengma is known as a reserve forest only in the forest department document. More than eight villages had been established since encroachment started inside the forest area in 1979.

Alleged apathy of the local administration, constant political influence, border dispute with adjoining Nagaland and largescale corruption of a section of forest officials have helped in total encroachment.

“Once rays of the sun could not penetrate the forest. Now you might have to go a long way for a shade in summer,” Hussain said.

According to a Golaghat forest department source, 30 hectares of the reserve forest were free from encroachment till April this year.

Over the past four months thatched houses sprouted in the area.

The forest department recently submitted a proposal to Golaghat deputy commissioner Harendra Nath Bora for an eviction drive to clear the newly encroached part, but the proposal remains futile after a series of inquiry by the local administration.

Golaghat deputy commissioner Harendra Nath Bora said after a magistrate-level inquiry into encroachment, the local forest department was directed to go ahead with its programme.

“After all it is encroachment. The department concerned is entitled to take required steps as that part belongs to the reserve forest area,” Bora said over phone.

“If that part is cleared, some plantation will be done to save the reserve forest,” the forest department said.

Golaghat has four reserve forests where more than 80 per cent is under encroachment. The worst hit of these are Diphu and Rengma reserve forests.

“Our demand is to stop encroachment and largescale migration of people of doubtful citizenship to the reserve forests of Golaghat. A part of Kajiranga is already in the grip of encroachers under the very nose of the forest department. If encroachment continues, the indigenous people here will become minorities,” Rathin Gogoi, an inhabitant of Sarupathar village, said.