AT Photo (File)
Guwahati, Nov 6: At a time when citizens of Guwahati, particularly students, are agitating to protect the trees along the banks of Dighalipukhuri, encroachment of the forests has also become a cause of major concern.
According to Government records, Assam has a forest cover of 34.21 percent of the total geographical area of the State, but a large portion of the forests have been encroached upon. Though the Government launches eviction drives from time to time, that is not enough to deal with the problem. Due to the encroachment of the forests, the man-animal conflict is increasing in several parts of the State, which has become a major cause of concern. Forest encroachments have also increased air temperature and this year, Assam faced the hottest September month ever.
According to official records, Kamrup (Metro) district has 16 reserved forests covering an area of more than 35,329 hectares and a substantial portion of the forests are under encroachment. The hills falling under reserved forests like Fatasil, South Kalapahar, Jalukbari, Gotanagar, Hengrabari, Sarania, Garbhanga, etc, are largely under encroachment and so far, no Government over the years have taken any effective step to evict the encroachers. Similarly, in Kamrup district, according to official records, more than 130 hectares of forest land are under encroachment but the actual scenario must be much worse.
Though the Government has been launching eviction drives on forests from time to time, so far, no such drives are seen inside the city for reasons best known to the authorities concerned.
Giving details of the eviction drives launched in the reserved forests, sources said that in the last couple of years, more than 113 drives were launched. In the year 2022-23, 402.32 hectares of forest land were cleared during eviction drives and in 2023-24, an area of 564.58 hectares of forests were cleared. But official sources admitted that that is not enough as much more area is still under eviction and regular drives have to be carried out to clear all the forests from the grip of the encroachers. Moreover, in some forests, people are staying for years and it may be difficult to evict them. Forests along the inter-state boundaries are also under encroachment by the neighbouring states and those can be cleared only after the boundary disputes are completely settled, sources added.
It may be mentioned here that eviction drives often turn into political issue and that also causes problems in launching such drives.
-By Ramanuj Dutta Choudhury
