Most of encroachers in Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary are affluent ones

GUWAHATI: A few worrisome facts have come to the fore that most of the people who encroached upon lands in the Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary (AWS) are affluent ones and the motive behind the encroachment, maybe, is financial gains as the lands have a very high market value. The worst is that encroachment is still going on even though the Gauhati High Court did order status quo.

This is what the high-level committee that inquired into various aspects related to the encroachment inside and outside the AWS has said in its report submitted to the State government recently.

There was a hue and cry during an eviction drive in the wildlife sanctuary around two years back. The matter was then taken to the Gauhati High Court that ordered status quo. That led the State government to form a high-level committee to inquire into encroachment upon land inside and in the fringe areas of the sanctuary, illegal felling of trees, construction of new structures etc.

The high-level committee has mentioned in its report submitted to the government recently that – most of the encroachers own cars, motorcycles, costly white goods etc. Most of them, the report said, are not BPL (Below Poverty Line) families, nor are they homeless ones. The report has specifically said that the motive behind the encroachment, maybe, is to mint money as the market value of the land is very high. The report has suggested an investigation by the government as the encroachers who are well organized with sand bunkers may have nexus with antisocial elements. Gauzing the gravity of the situation, the committee has suggested the setting up of a police camp along with forest personnel inside the sanctuary. The committee has also suggested a house-to-house survey to ascertain if the encroachers are real landless people, and if some of them turn out to be landless ones they should be rehabilitated where they came from.

The report has further suggested that power connections to the encroachers should be disconnected immediately and drawing of water with bore wells should be banned for better ground water conservation in the area.

The Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary was declared in 2004 comprising Khanapara Reserve Forest, Amchang Reserve Forest and South Amchang Reserve Forest. The root cause of the problem is that the then government fell short of demarcating of revenue land and forest land in the area while declaring it as a wildlife sanctuary.

The committee has suggested immediate demarcation of sanctuary lands and revenue lands in the area and surveying the boundary of the sanctuary with the help of the Survey of India.

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