Guwahati: The Assam government on July 29 started a massive eviction drive to clear over 10,590 bighas of land in the Renga Reserve Forest. Over 2000 police and 500 forest protection personnel were deployed in the drive in Rengma forest near the Assam-Nagaland border. Golaghat district administration deployed 100 bulldozers to demolish thousands of illegal houses, shops, Masjids and other structures.
The massive eviction drive aims to clear encroachment spread over 12 villages comprising 2648 houses built in forest land during the last two decades. Senior forest officials told “Organiser Weekly” that the eviction drive will take 3 to 4 days before clearing 12 illegal villages settled in the forest land. Notice was served one week prior to the eviction to all households and over 70 percent settlers have already vacated the encroachment. Top police officials including IGP (L&O), SSP Golaghat and others were present in the eviction site to oversee the law and order situation. The eviction drive has been smooth and no incident of any violence reported so far, said a senior police official.
It should be mentioned that Rengma reserve forest in Golaghat district bordering Nagaland was once a thriving spot of biodiversity. But during the Congress rule in the state, Bangladeshi origin Muslims from Nagaon district started encroaching the area. From 2001 to 2016 during the Congress tenure, hundreds of Bangladeshi Muslim families migrated from Nagaon to Uriamghat, almost 200 km away, and settled in the Rengma reserve forest.
They destroyed over 10,000 bighas of forest land, its valuable trees were cut and sold illegally and completely demolished the biodiversity of the reserve forest. Locals alleged that the illegal settlement and forest destruction was patronised by the then Congress government only for votebank politics. Later the illegal settlers used the huge forest land to grow erica nut tree which became a profitable business for the Bangladeshi origin Muslims. They started dry erica nuts factories inside the forest area and exported it all over India.
The Assam government of late conducted a drone survey of the forest land and the result of the survey was shocking for the people. Over the last two decades thousands of Bangladeshi Muslims settled in the forest land migrating from different areas of Nagaon district. They even successfully registered their names in the voter list of Sarupothar assembly constituency.
CM Himants Biswa Sarma recently said that Rengma forest encroachment is a perfect example of Land Jihad and ploy to change demography. These people were slowly trying to create a vote bank in the Hindu majority Sarupothar constituency. In another 10-15 years they will become a sizable force in that constituency and then they will start migrating to a nearby constituency. So in this way in next 3 decades the Bangladeshi Muslims would be a major voting factor in any upper Assam Hindu majority assembly constituency. This is not just a simple encroachment, it is a planned process to change the total demography of the state, he said.
