Guwahati: More than 1,100 families, most of them Bengali-speaking Muslims, have been evicted from forest land in Assam’s Nagaon, Hojai and Golaghat districts in a two-day demolition drive, according to officials and media reports.
On Sunday, October 18, homes of more than 600 families were pulled down in the Lutumari Longjap Reserve Forest in Nagaon, a senior forest official told Scroll.in. Another official, however, put the figure at around 500 and said the exercise was likely to continue on Monday, October 19, as well.
On Saturday, October 17, as many as 547 families were evicted under heavy security. Of these, 336 were in Nagaon, 152 in Hojai and 59 in Golaghat, Scroll.in reported, citing government officials.
Officials said many families had moved out with their belongings before the excavators arrived. No untoward incident was reported.
Settled by government: Lutumari families
The Lutumari families had lived on more than 300 hectare inside the reserve for decades. Residents have rejected the administration’s claim that they are encroachers. They say their elders worked as labourers for the Forest Department and were settled there by the state.
“We were settled by the government in 1974,” Abdul Noor, a 44-year-old whose house was demolished on Sunday, told Scroll.in.
Noor said his forefathers were landless people from nearby Juria. They were among 300 families given four bighas each, he said. The residents had challenged the eviction in the Gauhati High Court but got no relief, he added.
He also claimed that more than 10 mosques, some of them over 50 years old, were razed. The claim could not be independently verified.
In June, the All India Union of Forest Working People urged the state government to halt the eviction. It said residents of four villages in the reserve were settled under the taungya system and should not be treated as ordinary encroachers. The villages are Kandarpa Longjap, Padumoni, Hatijur and No 9 Kheroni.
Under taungya, a system introduced by the British in the mid-19th century, forest workers grew food crops alongside commercially valuable trees while working for the Forest Department. The union cited a June 7, 1974, Forest Department communication on taungya settlements in the Kaki and Lutumari Longjap reserves.
On June 10, the High Court gave settlers in the Lutumari reserve 30 days to vacate. It directed the power distribution company Assam Power Distribution Company Limited (APDCL) to cut their electricity supply after that period. The court held that the public’s right to protect forests and wildlife outweighed the petitioners’ private right to live inside reserve forests, citing Article 48A of the Constitution.
A separate part of the greater Lutumari reserve was cleared in November last year. Around 1,700 families were affected then, across nearly 800 hectares.
Drives in Hojai, Golaghat
In Hojai, 152 households were demolished in the Jamuna-Maudanga Reserve Forest and around 525 bighas were cleared. Nearly 600 police personnel were deployed across five zones.
The first phase of that drive, on January 2, covered about 700 hectare and affected around 1,100 families. Divisional Forest Officer Nayanjyoti Rajbongshi said the remaining families had moved the Supreme Court. The court directed the formation of a district-level committee, and notices were issued and claims examined before the latest operation, he said.
In Golaghat, authorities demolished the houses of the last 59 families at No 2 Negheribil in the Merapani area. In the first phase, in July 2025, as many as 146 of the 205 identified families were evicted. The remaining families had secured temporary relief from court and the drive resumed after a ruling in the government’s favour.
Golaghat District Forest Officer (DFO) Mukut Ch Das said most families had left before the operation. He said patrolling would continue to prevent people from returning.
In Nagaon’s Borpani Reserve Forest, residents alleged they were not given enough time to remove their belongings. Notices had been issued to the 336 families there, who occupied 216 hectare.
The state government has maintained that the drives aim to free forest and government land from encroachment. According to data compiled by Scroll.in from the Revenue Department and district authorities, about 19,000 families, most of them Muslim, have been evicted from government land in the 10 years of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rule in the state.
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