GUWAHATI: In yet another bold step, the Assam government has cleared over 6200 bighas of encroached land in Burha Chapori Wildlife Sanctuary in Sonitpur district. 710 Bangladeshi-origin Muslim families were evicted from the forest area encroached during the previous Congress regime.
Sonitpur District Commissioner Anand Kumar Das said the land in question belongs to the wildlife sanctuary and has been encroached upon by thousands of people for an extended period. They were served an eviction notice way in advance of the drive beginning on 5th January. The DC said that no exemption was granted for encroachment in protected forest areas. 710 structures, including pucca houses and religious structures, were demolished during the 3-day eviction drive.
Sonitpur Senior Police Superintendent Varun Purkayastha said the entire eviction drive was conducted smoothly, with no major law-and-order incidents. More than 300 police and paramilitary personnel were deployed to the evacuation sites. 36 excavators and 60 tractors were used to clear the site. In February 2023, the state government conducted a major eviction drive in the Burha Chapori Wildlife Sanctuary and cleared over 1800 hectares of forest land encroached by illegal Bangladeshi origin settlers. More than 12,800 illegal settlers were evicted from the wildlife sanctuary, which was once a rich habitat for wild animals, including one-horned Rhinos, tigers, and elephants. The successful eviction operation, spanning four days in February 2023, cleared 1,892 hectares of land in Bura Chapori. This sanctuary, once a thriving habitat for elephants, deer, birds, tigers, and one-horned rhinos, had been transformed into a mini township over four decades, with dozens of villages established within its bounds.
Located in the Sonitpur and Nagaon districts, the BurhaChapori wildlife sanctuary is a 70-square-kilometre forest strip home to a variety of wildlife. On the southern bank of the river Brahmaputra, the Laokhowa BurhaChapori forest area serves as a notified buffer zone of Kaziranga National Park. It was declared a reserve forest in 1974 and later declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1995. Ten months after the successful eviction drive, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma took to social media to share the exciting news, stating, “Happy to share that after 40 years, our iconic rhinos have returned to Laokhowa and Bura Chapori within one year of our successful anti-encroachment operation in the region. 51.7 square km of forest cover was retrieved from the evictions in 2023.” These sanctuaries had experienced significant encroachment, prompting a decisive anti-encroachment drive by the government.
