The Biswanath district administration carried out an eviction drive in the Baghmari area to clear 87.45 acres of Village Grazing Reserve land.
The operation was conducted peacefully with heavy security and excavatorS,
Some affected residents said they were unaware the land was VGR.
An eviction drive to clear more than 87 acres of grazing land in Assam’s Biswanath district was carried out by the district administration on Sunday, impacting over 360 families, an official said, adding that the operation was conducted peacefully.
Biswanath district Commissioner Lakhinandan Saharia said the eviction began around 7 am in the Baghmari area under the Behali Assembly constituency.
He said eviction notices had been issued in August to 435 families for allegedly encroaching upon about 265 bighas (87.45 acres) of Village Grazing Reserve (VGR) land in the area. VGR land refers to areas earmarked specifically for livestock grazing.
The process was halted earlier after 68 families approached the Gauhati High Court challenging the administration’s notice, the district commissioner said.
“Today, the eviction was carried out in the land encroached by the remaining 367 families,” he said.
Around 20 excavators were deployed for the operation, and heavy security arrangements were made to ensure the eviction proceeded without incident.
One of the alleged encroachers, Alap Uddin Haji, whose house was demolished, said his family was unaware that the land they had occupied was classified as VGR.
“We have been living here since my father’s time. We have nowhere to go now,” he said.
Haji also claimed that he had been attempting to obtain land rights for several years, but the authorities had not informed him about the actual status of the land.
(with PTI inputs)
