After two decades of human occupation, the Paikan Reserve Forest in Goalpara district is now devoid of people. The only structures left untouched are a government LP school, an anganwadi center, and a public health engineering water supply pump house. In response to recent events, the administration has banned gatherings and the forest department has begun erecting barbed wire fences around the area.
On Thursday, police clashed with 1,080 families who had been evicted from Bidyapara and Betbari villages situated within the reserve, leading to one civilian’s death and injuries sustained by several others due to police gunfire. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced the arrest of ten individuals in connection with the attack on police. According to Goalpara district Superintendent of Police, Nabaneet Mahanta, police drove all the evicted individuals from the area post-clash.
“No one is left in the area where the eviction drive took place,” said Mahanta. A police constable resting on the ruins of a mosque at Bidyapara remarked that it had been a significant mosque erected by the evicted families, who also built substantial structures in the forest land.
Amid the chaos, books, study materials, and furniture from both the anganwadi center and the Old LP School were reportedly set ablaze during the police confrontation. Among the ashes, a partially damaged table held a framed photograph of Lakshminath Bezbaroa, which survived the fire. The constable remarked, “They set everything on fire, but somehow, the framed photograph remained safe.”
In a conversation with families sheltering in Ashudubi, a neighboring village, residents insisted they did not attack officers. Johirul Sheikh, a daily wage laborer and father of two, claimed that his family had lived in Bidyapara for over forty years. “There must have been involvement from outsiders, as those busy gathering their belongings wouldn’t have attacked the police,” he argued.
Nur Ali, 65, who has provided temporary shelter to four families, stated that the Paikan Reserve Forest was designated in 1982, at which time no people lived there. “I grew up here and can assert that encroachment occurred over the last 20 years,” he noted. Most of the evicted families reportedly moved to Bidyapara and Betbari from places like Matabari, Jaleswar, Lakhipur, and Gaibanda in the past two decades, claiming they were displaced due to river erosion.
Goalpara district commissioner Prodip Timung acknowledged that while it’s challenging to pinpoint when families settled on the forest land, encroachment did happen over time. Amirul Islam, 33, who also lost his home, recalled a prior eviction approximately 20 years ago. He questioned why authorities allowed settlements to occur again if the land was indeed forest or government property. “Now they have destroyed our hard-earned homes. Where will we go, and what will be our future?” he lamented.
Original Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/govt-school-pump-house-anganwadi-centre-still-stand-on-cleared-paikan-land/articleshow/122770592.cms
Category:
Tags:
Publish Date: 2025-07-19 05:55:00
