Assam CM shares photos of rhinos freely roaming around the Pabho Reserve Forest, days after eviction drive

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma shared photos of three rhinos freely roaming around Pabho Reserve Forest, where recently an eviction drive was conducted and freed of 32000 bighas of land from encroachment.

Taking to Twitter, CM Sarma said, “Happy to share that 3 rhinos have been spotted in Pabho Reserve Forest in Lakhimpur, days after our drive resulted in freeing of 4163 ha (32000 bigha) of land in the RF from encroachment”.

Recently, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma applauded the administration for clearing encroachment from almost 90 per cent area of the Pabho Reserve Forest in Lakhimpur district.

The administration started the eviction drive to clear encroachment on January 10 which continued for several days, to evict around 500 “illegal settler” families.

"Our commitment to preserve our natural resources is sacrosanct. Happy to share that after 5 days of eviction exercise 4,163 ha (32,000 bigha) of Pabh0 Reserve Forest freed from encroachers," CM Sarma said in a tweet. The total area of the reserve forest is estimated to be 4,625.85 hectares, he added.

The Chief Minister also lauded efforts of the administration in their endeavour to conserve Assam's forest cover. 
Notably, the actual area of the Pabho Reserved Forest was 4625.87 hectares when created on March 6, 1941. The Reserved Forest was the habitat of wild buffalos in Assam. The administration launched the eviction operation in two phases. On Tuesday, the administration conducted the eviction drive at Mohghuli to free 200 hectares of land by evicting 202 households. During the operation mustard cultivations of the encroachers in the forest land were destroyed. Moreover, they also dismantled the houses not to let the encroachers settle again.

People had claimed their rights over the land under the Forest Right Act of 2006. But their applications were rejected by the authority concerned. The State Government then decided to evict those people. The illegal settlers include people from different parts of the state and local people.

Also read : Assam: 90 percent of Pabha Reserve Forest freed from encroachment, says CM Himanta Biswa Sarma