- Advertisement -
Guwahati : Facing with massive protests, Assam forest department on Friday has started eviction drives against the 1400 families that have been encroaching upon the Amchang wildlife sanctuary in Guwahati.
By deploying around 10,000 security and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) personnel, 20 elephants, 20 excavators, the forest department started the eviction drives against the encroachers from two sides in the wildlife sanctuary.
A top official of Kamrup (Metro) district said that, the eviction drive was conducted at Batahghuli and Yousuf Nagar area in the wildlife sanctuary and evicted around 300 houses, several educational institutions, religious infrastructures.
"The eviction drive will continue in next four days to evict all 1400 families, who were illegally encroached the wildlife sanctuary land," the official said.
Meanwhile, several people including security personnel were injured during clash while the forest department started eviction drive at Yousuf Nagar area.
According to the reports, the local people had pelted stone targeting to the security personnel and trying to halt the drive.
The district administration official said that, at least 5 security personnel were injured in the attack.
"The drive will continue until to evict all encroachers from the wildlife sanctuary," the official said.
On the other hand, several organizations including Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti had protested against the eviction drive and threatened the state government to create untoward situation if the drive wouldn't stop immediately.
The Gauhati High Court on August 2 had given a month time to the state government to clear the encroachers after the court took up a PIL in 2003 over the encroachment inside the 78.64 km radius sanctuary.
On the other hand, the Gauhati High Court on Friday ordered the state government to stop eviction drive at two sides named Yousuf Nagar and Bajra Nonke village till September 18 next.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
