Assam: Woman dead, six injured in clash with forest officials over land

One woman was killed and six others were injured on Monday in Assam’s Burha Chapori Wildlife Sanctuary after a clash between people who had been evicted from the area and forest department officials, reported The Indian Express.

The woman, identified as Rahima Khatun, died in gunfire by forest guards that injured three other civilians. Three forest guard officials were also injured in the attack.

In February, Himanta Biswa Sarma-led Bharatiya Janata Party government in Assam had launched a drive to evict over 2,500 families who had allegedly been living illegally on forest land.

The eviction drive was carried out on nearly 1,892 hectares of land at the Burha Chapori Wildlife Sanctuary, located on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra river. The wildlife sanctuary was declared as a reserve forest in 1974.

Another round of evictions were carried out in May. Nagaon Wildlife Divisional Forest Officer Jayanta Deka said that some of the families that were evicted had returned to the forest after their makeshift homes outside the area was flooded, The Indian Express reported.

“Rahima Khatun’s family had come the previous day and put up a tarpaulin tent because the land there is higher and they needed a place to keep their goats and cows,” Abdul Noor, the Nagaon district president of the All Assam Minority Students’ Union, told the newspaper.

Meanwhile, Deka claimed that the forest guard fired after people attacked them, reported The Indian Express.

“A group of us including me, the range officer and other forest staff had gone to the area to explain to them that they needed to leave the area,” Deka sai. “But some of the women began chasing us with knives, machetes and other sharp objects. There were almost 1,000 people. As an act of self-defence, we did some blank fires. Three forest guards are in the hospital as a result of the clash.”