“65 football fields worth land reclaimed”: Assam CM on Rengma Reserve Forest eviction

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday announced that 26 hectares of land in the Rengma Reserve Forest have been freed from encroachment as part of an ongoing eviction drive.

Sharing the update on X, Sarma wrote, “The hot pursuit continues! Our bulldozers reached Rengma Reserve Forest yesterday to pursue Part II of the eviction drive to free forest lands from encroachers. The result? 26 Hectares of Forest Land reclaimed -- enough to house 65 football fields!! The action will continue.”

The Chief Minister’s post comes a day after the Gauhati High Court directed the state government to fence off forest areas to prevent future encroachments. Welcoming the order, Sarma said the judgment would strengthen the government’s campaign and prevent political promises of restoring land to encroachers.

“The Gauhati High Court has delivered a historic judgement. The Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court said that the government should bring a stern regulation to prevent new encroachment. The government should take action against those government officers under whose watch a large-scale encroachment took place in forest lands,” Sarma told reporters in Guwahati.

A division bench of Chief Justice Ashwini Kumar and Justice Arun Dev Choudhary asked the government to provide encroachers 15 days to respond to notices and another 15 days to vacate before eviction begins.

The court’s order follows its July 31 directive to Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram to form a high-level committee for clearing encroachments along interstate forest boundaries.

Sarma linked the spread of illegal settlements to the Congress-led government’s tenure between 2006 and 2014. “After this verdict, we have now become more powerful, and in the coming days, we can carry out more eviction drives. Today’s verdict has stopped the announcement of the Congress party that they said they would return the lands after forming the government. This government will not compromise,” he said.

He added that the ruling also provides a framework for protecting other categories of land. “The division bench has given a guideline for the future also. After this verdict, we will bring our fight forward to free the forest lands from encroachment. The High Court had already given judgement on VGR/PGR lands and government revenue lands,” Sarma stated.