Forest dept serves eviction notice on Amchang residents

GUWAHATI: Even as the government has been appealing to people to stay indoors due to the Covid-19 threat, the forest department in Assam has slapped eviction notices on many families for allegedly constructing their houses by “encroaching” upon the territory of the Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary.
The issue of encroachment has been a bone of contention between the forest force and the local settlers here for some time now.The families, some of who claim to have settled here at Milanpur Borobasti at least 40 years ago, have been spending sleepless nights since May 8, when the notices were served by the divisional forest officer of Guwahati Wildlife Division on at least 30 families in the hilly areas of Amchang, asking them to vacate their houses within 15 days. Facing encroachment charges, the Amchang residents have threatened to launch an agitation, breaching the lockdown guidelines, if they are rendered homeless.
“How can we leave our homes at this hour of crisis? After voting for years, am I a Bangladeshi? We will have to take the protest path if the government evicts us forcefully,” said Babul Barman, a resident of Milanpur Borobasti, one of three human settlements in the Amchang area.
In 2017, the eviction carried out by the forest department at nearby Janasimalu evoked massive resistance from the locals.
Babul Ahmed, secretary of Kailashnagar Unnayan Samiti, the leading movement committee against the eviction drive, said, “When people are being asked not to go out of their homes, serving these eviction notices is condemnable. Even demarcation of the Amchang area is yet to be completed.”
Though the forest department is yet to react on the matter, the counsel representing the evicted residents of Amchang, Santanu Barthakur, said that the eviction matter is sub judice at the Gauhati high court, as there was a PIL filed way back in 2013. “Since the boundary of Amchang wildlife sanctuary has not been demarcated yet, status quo must be maintained,” he said.
“In 2016, in the wake of the dispute and eviction of the indigenous tribal people from the area by the forest department forcefully, there was a huge repercussion across Assam. This compelled the Assam government to stall the eviction process,” Barthakur added.