Tezpur/Nagaon/Goalpara (Assam), Jul 17 (PTI) One person was killed and at least seven others were injured on Monday in a clash between alleged encroachers and forest guards at the Burhachapori Wildlife Sanctuary in Sonitpur district of Assam, officials said.
Nagaon Wildlife Divisional Forest Officer Jayanta Deka claimed that alleged encroachers, who were earlier evicted from the forest, have been “trying to occupy land again” inside the sanctuary in the past few days.
“Today, around 800-900 people armed with machetes, sticks and other sharp objects came to Chitalmari camp to encroach land. Our people tried to speak with them, but they instead attacked the forest guards,” he told PTI over the phone.
At least three forest guards were injured in the attack by the villagers, who came from various areas of the neighbouring Nagaon district on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra river, Deka said.
“There were around 12 forest guards in the camp. In self-defence, they fired in the air to disperse the mob. In the melee, probably some bullets hit the crowd also. The local police have arrived at the spot and they told us that one woman has died,” he said.
A police officer said that at least four people from the crowd sustained bullet injuries in the clash.
The deceased woman has been identified as Rahima Khatun, who succumbed to her injuries when she was
taken to a hospital, he said.
All the other injured people have been sent to Nagaon for treatment, the police officer said.
The villagers, on the other hand, claimed that they were taking shelter in the highland of the forest because their houses in nearby villages have been inundated due to flood.
“Our cattle and poultry sheds are under water due to incessant rain in the last few days. That is why we constructed temporary sheds with tarpaulins, but the forest guards came to evict us, alleging that we have set up houses by encroaching forest land,” said Rahmat Khan, one of the villagers.
In one of the largest eviction drives in Assam, the administration cleared 2,099 hectare of land in the
Burhachapori Wildlife Sanctuary and nearby revenue villages in February, which affected around 12,800 people.
During the day, the Assam government also carried out an eviction drive in Goalpara district to clear the Nalbari Reserve Forest from encroachers.
Lakhipur Ranger Dhruba Dutta said around 100 hectare of the Nalbari Reserved Forest area has been encroached over the years, and the administration has now decided to clear those.
“We carried out an eviction drive today and cleared around three hectare of land. In the process,15 families were evicted from the encroached land,” he said.
The exercise was carried out in the presence of civil and police officials, Dutta said.
“We have not faced any resistance during the eviction drive. In the rest of the encroached land, such an exercise will be carried out in the coming days,” he said without
specifying any timeframe for the drive.