Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has once again sounded the alarm over the extent of land encroachment in the state, revealing that nearly 1.29 crore bighas, or approximately 49 lakh acres, of government land are currently under illegal occupation.
Speaking at a public event, the chief minister remarked on the enormity of the task ahead. “It is 1,29,00,000 bigha. If you convert it to hectares, I don’t know how much it will be. But 49,00,000 acres of land is under encroachment today in Assam,” he said.
My Life Will Finish, Then Also It Will Not Get Vacated: Himanta Biswa Sarma
Acknowledging the overwhelming scale of the issue, Sarma admitted that a complete reclamation within a single political tenure is virtually impossible. “I can’t plan it for so much land. My life will finish, then also it will not get vacated,” he added, underlining the long-term nature of the anti-encroachment campaign.
Assam CM has earlier stated that more than 12,000 hectares of land, the size of Chandigarh, has been cleared. As per data accessed by TDG, 12,0003 hectares of illegally encroached land have been cleared by the Assam government.
The state government’s next area of concern is Uriamghat and Negheribil on the Assam-Nagaland border area of the Golaghat district. In the past few days, the forest department and police departments have been carrying out drone surveys to determine encroached forest lands and gathering documents from families in the area by going house to house. Due to these efforts by the forest and police personnel, people are seen loading their belongings onto trucks and leaving the area.
One Killed, Several Injured During Anti-Encroachment Drive Across Assam
Earlier, at least one person was killed and another critically injured after violent clashes erupted between alleged settlers and security forces during an eviction drive in Assam’s Goalpara district. Several police personnel were also injured in the confrontation, which took place in and around the Paikan Reserve Forest area.
The incident occurred during an operation to clear illegal encroachments from nearly 140 hectares of forest land within the Paikan Reserve Forest, which spans a total of 711 hectares. According to officials, settlers armed with sticks and stones attacked the eviction team, prompting police to retaliate.
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