'450 families evicted from Assam's forest to reduce man-elephant conflict'

Around 2,000 "illegal settlers" belonging to 450 families were evicted on Tuesday from 55-60 hectares of forest land in Goalpara district of Assam, an official said.

Several government installations were also removed from that area during the eviction drive which will help prevent man-elephant conflict, he said.

The exercise was carried out at Bandarmatha Reserve Forest, spread across 118 hectares, in Lakhipur Range in presence of a heavy posse of security personnel and civil and forest officials.

"The eviction drive is being carried out as per a Gauhati High Court order directing that all reserve forest areas in Goalpara be cleared of encroachments. Man-elephant conflict is the highest in Goalpara in the entire country," Goalpara Divisional Forest Officer Tejas Mariswamy said.

After clearing the area, an afforestation drive will be carried out and make it suitable for elephant habitation, he added.

"We are clearing 55-60 hectares. Around 450 families consisting of about 2,000 people lived here. During the last week, we held flag marches, informed people about our boundary and requested them to move out of the demarcated area," Mariswamy said.

Most of the people, who had illegally settled in the area, have voluntarily moved out and the exercise will be peacefully completed by Tuesday, he claimed.

Mariswamy also said that one Jal Jeevan Mission unit comprising one house and an overhead water tank was demolished.

"On an average, 25 people lose their lives in man-elephant conflict. If we want to bring down this conflict, one of the main solutions will be to clear our forest areas of all illegal settlements," he asserted.

The DFO further said that nine eviction exercises were undertaken in Goalpara in the last one year and cleared almost 550 hectares of encroached forest land.

"Our target is to clear all our reserve forest of encroachment. We are answerable to the high court and it has given a clear direction to evict all encroachments in Goalpara forests," he claimed.

Besides Bandarmatha Reserve Forest in Lakhipur Range, the administration had carried out similar evictions earlier in Nalbari and Kumarkali.

"After we clear Bandarmatha, all three forests will be cleared. These three forests are connected. It will help in elephant movement, thereby reducing man-elephant conflict," he said.