Conserving forests and wildlife sanctuaries is a worthy objective. However, when a government can bulldoze thousands of houses without a viable plan in place for those living in them, “conservation” begins to sound like a nice word for crime. Think about this year’s year. More than 1,200 homes were raised close to the Burhachapori Wildlife Sanctuary in Sonitpur around the month of January following an earlier drive that was carried out in November that raised over 2,000 hectares. Some 500 homes were demolished at Azara in March with only 15 days warning. There is a period of 15 days to destroy a lifetime.
The situation cannot be ignored. Many of the evicted were Bengali-speaking Muslim who had previously lost their land to flood and erosion, reports indicate. A local legislator charged that the administration was singling out communities in Hailakandi where several communities reside side by side. The chief minister uses the word “infiltrators” instead of “encroachers” and it would be fair to say citizens have doubts about why ecology is so important.
The argument comes crumbling down in the rehabilitation. One of the evictees of Sonitpur said that the family had been staying there for decades and didn’t know where to go. A policy to destruction does not restore a forest! It merely transfers the poor from one weak riverbank to another, and the clear land is set aside for projects like solar plants.
The human toll is real. The state’s own record shows the Darrang police firing in 2021 and killing two, including a minor. Every new drive is a repetition of the old and will mean another encounter, for those who have had no other choice have nothing to lose. A government which was truly concerned with conservation would first have an evaluation of land rights and would ensure that lawful claims are settled. It would provide resettlement prior to demolition, and not after. It would also chase off the big land grabbers with the same vigor with which it will chase landless families on the river islands.
If they are not taken, the drives will not constitute an environmental policy. They are punishment in disguise and Assam, its forests, will be less green because of them. Much worse, a State that evicts and then asks questions teaches its poorest citizens that they are guests in their own homeland.
