AIKS Assam Demands Action Against Encroachment of State's Forest Land by Neighbors, Urges Intervention from Union and State Authorities

LAKHIMPUR: The Assam State Council of All India Kishan Sabha (AIKS) has expressed serious concern over the increasing encroachment upon Assam’s forest land by a section of people from the neighbouring states  In this context, the organization submitted a memorandum to the Union Forest Minister, Chief Minister of Assam demanding their intervention over the issue and remove the aggressors.

In the memorandum AIKS-Assam State Council president Girindra Prasad Upadhyay, secretary Jayant Gogoi said, “The tea cultivation in Assam has been severely affected due to the encroachment of the forest reserves of Assam by the neighbouring states. In addition to the decline in tea production, the quality of tea has deteriorated and agriculture has been adversely affected by the encroachment. The educated unemployed in Assam who used to earn a minimum living by small scale tea cultivation for self-employment are suffering from depression due to decline in production. We demand strong demarcation between the two states with the implementation of the Survey of India policy.”

“A section of Arunachal people has continued encroachment upon almost all the border reserved forests in Lakhimpur district and built large houses and cultivated tea and rubber. The local people have to face with massive threat from the aggressors. They have even encroached upon 20 hectares of forests land, planted with ‘Segun’ and other invaluable trees by Joint Forest Management Committee (JFMC) in 2005-2006 and 2015-2016 respectively”, the memorandum added. The AIKS-Assam State Council president and secretary further said in the memorandum with resentment that if the both governments have supported their encroachment silently, some of such land should be distributed among the local educated youths of Assam to provide them self-employment.

The organization demanded the Government of Assam to evict the encroachment immediately and determine the permanent boundaries on a priority basis.

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