DIPHU, Sept 3 - A large portion of land of the Doldoli Reserve Forest has been allegedly encroached by some people from neighbouring Dimapur in Nagaland, according to information received here.
Eyewitnesses said a number of earth removers and a large number of people cleared a vast stretch of forest land in the morning hours of Wednesday.
Local people, mainly women, living near Disapur village, came to resist the encroachers, and reportedly chased them from the place with a warning.
As alleged by the people, the whole problem begin with an illegal forest land deal between two prominent Naga groups and one extremist group of Karbi Anglong which has now surrendered.
This has now escalated into a group clash inside the Doldoli Reserve Forest near the Naga village named Ralian.
According to information received, this is a stretch between the eastern boundary pillars no.3 and 17 of the Doldoli Reserve Forest (notified in 1923). In the land deal, a huge amount of money was paid to a certain group, and the entity without informing the forest authorities tried to occupy more than 2,500 hectares by building roads in the pretext of building a forest road.
It is pertinent to mention here that while trying to resist such a move, one ranger was summarily released against a redundant order of transfer made during the last Parliamentary elections of 2016-17.
It has also been alleged by the locals that one sitting Executive Member of the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council is behind the crisis. One of the villagers on condition of anonymity said that the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council appears to be hand-in-glove with the land deal in violation of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.
�The outsiders are interested in this tract of land, as it has a prospective reservoir of petroleum and natural gas. The land deal also exposes the misuse of powers of the local body vested under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India,� he said.
