Neighbours encroach 76,000 hectares of Assam's forest cover amid climate crisis: Sources

Guwahati, Aug 6: With climate change due to deforestation becoming a major issue, more than 76,000 hectares of Assam’s forest areas are under encroachment by people from neighbouring states. As Assam is located in the plains, it is facing the heat of climate change due to deforestation.

Official sources told The Assam Tribune that Assam has 82 reserved forests along the interstate boundaries covering an area of more than six lakh hectares. From the records available, 36 of those reserved forests covering an area of more than 76,000 hectares are under encroachment by people of the neighbouring states. These areas witnessed massive destruction of the forests as trees were mercilessly cut down.

Sources pointed out that after cutting down the trees, habitations were set up in the encroached areas, while commercial activities like tea gardens, rubber gardens, palm oil cultivation, etc., are taking place. In some cases, this was followed by the setting up of administrative offices by the neighbouring states. An example of it is the setting up of Tarasso circle administrative offices by Arunachal Pradesh inside the Behali reserve forest in Sonitpur district.

According to records available, 36 reserved forests are located along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border, covering an area of more than two lakh hectares of land. But of that area, 13,109.40 hectares are under encroachment by people of Arunachal Pradesh. Of course, people of Assam are also involved in encroachment in the reserved forests located in the interstate boundary.

The situation is even worse in the case of Nagaland. Sources revealed that there are nine reserved forests along the Assam-Nagaland border covering an area of around 1.50 lakh hectares, and more than one lakh hectares are under encroachment. Sources said that of the encroached area, more than 59,000 hectares are encroached by people of Nagaland, while 48,000 hectares are under encroachment by people of Assam.

Six reserved forests are located along the Assam-Mizoram border, covering an area of around 1.21 lakh hectares, and 3,652 hectares are under encroachment by the people of Mizoram, while 9.362 hectares are under encroachment by the people of Assam. Similarly, there are 31 reserved forests along the Assam-Meghalaya border covering an area of 1.14 lakh hectares, and over 21,000 hectares are under encroachment. However, records of how much area is encroached by local people and how much by the people of Meghalaya are not available.

Replying to a question as to how such large-scale encroachment by neighbouring states was possible, official sources admitted that people took the opportunity of border disputes to encroach on forests. In the case of Nagaland, police forces of both sides were engaged in an exchange of fire on several occasions, and the incident in Merapani in 1985 was the worst.

Encroachment by Nagaland started way back in the 1980s. Naga militant groups give protection to the encroachers. Sources said that the militant groups agree with the encroachers, most of whom belong to a particular community, to encroach on land, cut down trees and engage in economic activities. The militants get a cut from the proceeds. Even during the recent eviction drive in Uriamghat, NSCN militants were seen roaming around with weapons. But they could not do anything due to the heavy security deployment from Assam.

Sources said that during the firefight with Mizoram, state police officials were also injured, while, in the case of Arunachal Pradesh, several skirmishes took place while trying to evict encroachers from the reserved forests.

Sources also admitted that the political will of the Government is required to deal with the problem and the present Government has taken a tough stand on the issue and launched eviction drives all over the State to evict encroachers from the reserved forest areas.