Encroachment of forest a problem in Asom: Hussain

Guwahati, Dec 12 (UNI) Asom Environment and Forests Minister Rockybul Hussain today informed the Asom Assembly that encroachment of forest land was a burning problem and the government would soon resort to a massive eviction drive to clear the forest areas.

In response to a calling attention motion brought by the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) MLA Girindra Kumar Baruah, Mr Hussain painted a grave picture of encroachment in Chariduar and Balipara reserve forest areas in northern Asom.

He said desstruction of forest cover at Chariduar started in 1982 and today 22,000 hectares of land of its total 24,072 hectares were under the grip of encroachers. The situation is similar in Balipara reserve forest area where encroachment started in 1995-96. Total encroachers have settled down on 10,000 hectares of the total 18,972 hectares of forest area.

The minister informed that in view of the gravity of the situation, a massive eviction drive was being carried out and strict instructions were issued to forest officials to prevent construction of any more houses by encroachers within the forest areas.

Mr Hussain said encroachment of forest areas in the state had contributed a lot in fuelling the man-elephant conflict in the state. Besides consulting experts on how to tackle the straying herds of wild elephants, the state government had moved the Supreme Court requesting permission to catch elephants.

The practice was banned in the state long back.

As per statistics available with the state Forest Department, there were 5536 elephants in the state as per the survey conducted in 1993 and the number was reduced to 5312 in 1997 and 5246 in 2002.

UNI XC BA LS ND1436