The Assam government on Sunday resumed its eviction campaign in western Assam’s Goalpara district, with the authorities launching a demolition drive to clear alleged encroachments on approximately 153 hectares of land within the Dahikata Reserve Forest, PTI reported.

Goalpara Deputy Commissioner Prodip Timung said eviction notices had been issued to 580 families over 15 days ago.

“The entire stretch of land is completely under the Dahikata Reserve Forest and has been encroached by these people,” The Indian Express quoted him as saying.

He added that around 70% of the residents had vacated voluntarily after receiving notices, while the others are in the process of doing so.

Timung said that while the administration had set aside two days for the operation, the eviction was likely to be completed within a day, PTI reported.

“So far, we have not received any resistance,” he said.

He added that the drive was being carried out in accordance with Gauhati High Court directives, with three related petitions heard by the court earlier.

Special Chief Secretary (Forest) MK Yadava has claimed the land that is being cleared falls within an elephant corridor and that removing encroachments would help reduce human-animal conflict, PTI reported.

However, residents have contested the government’s claims.

Abdul Karim, one of those being affected by the eviction, told PTI that people in the area had been living there for decades.

He remarked: “If we were encroachers, why did the government give us electricity lines, toilets and other facilities? We have Aadhaar cards and all land documents, but still we are being treated as outsiders.”

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, in a social media post on Thursday, had announced the resumption of eviction drives in the state.

“A lot of people had thought whether the evictions would be stopped,” The Indian Express quoted him as saying. “I want to inform you that I cannot make you happy. On November 9th and 10th, in Goalpara’s Dahikata forest, evictions will begin.”

On November 3, Sarma said that eviction drives would continue and that “illegal Miyas” – a term commonly used in Assam for Bengali-speaking Muslims – cannot have peace under his government, PTI reported.

Since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in Assam in 2016, multiple demolition drives have been conducted across districts, mostly targeting areas populated by Bengali-speaking Muslims.

The eviction campaign that began on Sunday marks the third such drive in the Goalpara district. On June 16, the authorities demolished homes of 690 families in Hasilabeel, a wetland, near Goalpara town. On July 12 the authorities cleared 140 hectares of land in the Paikan Reserve Forest, displacing 1,080 families.

Five days after the July eviction drive, a 19-year-old was killed and several were injured after the police opened fire at protesters amid clashes at the site of the drive.

Following the eviction displaced families had been living in tents and makeshift tarpaulin huts. Officials had asked them to dismantle the structures.

On the morning of July 17, the authorities dug up a road that provided connectivity to the settlement, which led to protests and sparked the clashes.

Also read: Assam: Evicted residents claim government had helped them settle in disputed area in 1970s

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