Groups of men that included village officials went house-to-house, clearing 78.21 acres of village grazing reserve (VGR) land on Thursday in the Assam government’s attempt to clear the village grazing reserve under Phukondoli village in Naoboicha revenue circle of Lakhimpur district. This exercise affected a total of 114 families, as the area was claimed by the authorities to be under illegal encroachment. This was done with a high level of security, and earlier warnings had been given to the residents on July 31.
District officials also said that almost 25 percent of the evicted families had already moved out even before the day of eviction, though the rest had moved their possessions in expectation of the drive. One of the low-lying villages that had been reportedly under commercial fishery activities was the low-lying village. According to the authorities, each family made 5 to 10 lakhs every year by farming fish as they had excavated ponds throughout the grazing land.
The administration said it had a right to evict residents on land that was approved as a village grazing reserve decades earlier, and who were not authorized to be there, although evicted residents insisted they had a right to the land because it had been their home for more than 20 years.
The families that were displaced were all characteristics of Bengali-speaking Muslims. This is the eighth round of eviction that was organized by the Assam government since June 2025. The biggest of these came last week in Uriamghat, Golaghat district, where villagers cleared 1,500 hectares of forest land, forcing out close to 1,500 families.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has unswervingly justified such moves, saying his government has reclaimed more than 160 square kilometers of government land since he assumed power in May 2021. He reasserted that all encroachments on forest lands, VGRs, professional grazing reserves, satras, namghars, and other government land will be cleared in a phased and legal manner.
Most of the displaced families, especially Bengali-speaking Muslims, argue that they were settled after losing land.
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