Assam’s District Commissioners have been instructed to assess the extent of encroachment on forestlands, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Friday, (August 1, 2025).
He said the State government would try to evict all people, barring tribals and forest dwellers covered by the Forest Rights Act, from the jungles.
“Tribal people living in forest areas from before 2005 can continue to stay, but we will evict others not eligible to live in forests,” he told journalists in Guwahati.
The Chief Minister said the level of encroachment, encouraged by some previous regimes, had been high and beyond imagination. “The exercise will take at least 10 years to complete even if we carry out one eviction drive per month,” he said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led government undertook the first eviction drive, following a Gauhati High Court order, in 2016. The second drive was carried out in 2021.
