Just opposite of the Neelachal Hill, where the Maa Kamakhya temple is situated, there is a lesser-known hill named Surya Pahar. Known for its scenic beauty and the century-old Surya Temple, the hill is now home to almost 300 Bangladeshi-origin Muslim families. These people came to the capital city, Guwahati, from different districts of lower Assam and started encroaching on the sacred hill during the Congress regime from 2001 to 2016. They have set up a masjid adjacent to the premises of the Surya temple, which was destroyed several decades ago due to natural calamities, including earthquakes and landslides. The Bangladeshi Muslims also established a Madrassa in the area for religious education and changed the name of the area to Kudratpur. The local Hindu community stated that the government should immediately conduct an eviction drive and reclaim the hill, as it is crucial to the ecological balance of Guwahati city. The hill, which was once home to a number of leopards and other animals, is now in deep trouble due to growing human habitation.
Uriamghat Eviction
Near the Assam- Nagaland border, the Rengma reserve forest was a blessing of nature just two decades ago. But after 2005, during the Congress rule in Assam, Bangladeshi origin Muslims started an invasion of the forest reserve. Few Bangladeshi land mafias settled hundreds of families inside the forest reserve in the direct patronage of the Congress government in the state and converted it to hidden villages of 500 Bangladeshi Muslim families. The Bangladeshi land mafias with direct help from Congress leaders created farms of areca nut in thousands of bighas of forest land.
CM Himanta Biswa Sarma recently said that these mafias have encroached upon 3000 bighas of forest land in Rengma forest and converted it to areca nut garden. They have set up factories of dry nuts there and sell them all over the country. The Assam government recently conducted a joint survey by forest and district administration, where they found that over 3000 bighas of forest land have been under encroachment. The forest department served a notice to all illegal settlers to vacate the forest land within one week, on July 20. After receiving the government notice, the encroachers have started vacating the forest land. Most of these encroachers are from Nagaon and Morigaon districts. Dozens of trucks are now carrying the household properties of the encroachers’ families who travelled 200 kilometres to encroached forest land. Haren Sonowal, a local in Uriamghat, said that this was possible only under the direct patronage of the then Congress government. These people were trying to change the demography of the location and also the voter ratio of the Hindu majority Sarupothar assembly constituency, he added.
