Mass Evictions in Assam Displace Over 1,000 Families from Reserve Forest
Eviction Drive in Goalpara District
In a significant eviction operation on Saturday, officials in Assam's Goalpara district cleared 140 hectares of land within the Paikan Reserve Forest, resulting in the displacement of 1,080 families, predominantly Muslims of Bengali descent.
This marks the second substantial eviction effort in the district, following the demolition of homes belonging to 690 families in Hasilabeel, a wetland area near Goalpara town, on June 16.
In the past month, at least five eviction operations have occurred across four districts in Assam, displacing nearly 3,500 families.
Tejas Mariswamy, the Divisional Forest Officer for Goalpara, reported that approximately 2,700 structures were demolished during Saturday's operation.
Mariswamy stated, “The land is part of the Paikan Reserve Forest of the Krishnai Range.”
Mizanur Rahman, a 28-year-old resident of Bidyapara revenue village, expressed despair after losing his home in the eviction. He lamented, “All three of our houses, including the pacca house, were destroyed today… we have no land to go to.”
Rahman emphasized that the community had been residing in the area long before it was designated as a reserved forest, asserting, “It is a revenue village.”
The Assam government initially proposed to designate Paikan as a reserve forest in 1959, and it was officially declared as such in 1982.
In 2022, the Goalpara Lawyers Association submitted a memorandum to the state government and forest department, highlighting unresolved forest rights and claims of several individuals in the region.
The association urged compliance with the mandatory provisions outlined in the 1891 Assam Forest Regulation, which were established in October 1959, prior to any evictions in protected forest areas.
Jiten Das, president of the district lawyers’ association, along with secretary Wazed Ali, noted that over the past four decades, 472 villages in Goalpara district have been lost to erosion from the Brahmaputra river, leaving thousands homeless and landless. “Many of these individuals, having found no other means of survival, sought refuge on the PRF land, constructing makeshift shelters,” they added.
A significant presence of security personnel has been observed patrolling the area in recent days.
District officials indicated that many residents had already dismantled their homes and relocated before the eviction took place.
Deputy Commissioner Khanindra Choudhury stated that the evictions were executed peacefully, with over 1,000 police personnel deployed and around 40 bulldozers utilized.
In a related incident last week in Dhubri district, an eviction drive resulted in the demolition of homes belonging to 1,400 Bengali-origin Muslim families. Authorities allocated land for the rehabilitation of those affected and provided Rs 50,000 as one-time relief for transporting their belongings.
On June 30, 93 families of Bengali-origin Muslims were evicted in Nalbari district during an anti-encroachment operation on nearly 150 acres of village grazing reserve land in the Barkhetri revenue circle.
On July 3, around 220 families were removed during an anti-encroachment drive in Lakhimpur district, where families had been residing on 77 acres of land across four locations, including three village grazing reserves.
Data from the state revenue and disaster management department indicates that between 2016 and August 2024, over 10,620 families, primarily Muslim, have been evicted from government land.
