Assam govt clears 912 acres of forest land along Assam-Mizoram border from encroachment, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma says ‘will reclaim every inch of our land’

The Assam government’s fight against illegal land encroachments continues, as an eviction drive to free forest lands along the Assam-Mizoram state boundary was conducted on 3^rd February. The drive was completed peacefully as most of the illegal settlers had left the encroached land in advance. The authorities freed over 912 acres or 2,800 Bighas of land during the anti-encroachment drive.

Taking to X, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that around 912 acres, an area bigger than the campus of IIT Guwahati was freed from illegal encroachment in Hailakandi district. CM Sarma reiterated his government’s resolve to free every inch of the state’s land from encroachers.

“912 acres- an area bigger than the campus of IIT Guwahati has been freed in Hailakandi. As our bulldozers rolled in since yesterday, we reaffirmed our commitment to reclaim every INCH of our land from encroachers. It’s a question of our survival, and we shall emerge victorious,” he said.

912 acres- an area bigger than the campus of IIT Guwahati has been freed in Hailakandi.

As our bulldozers rolled in since yesterday, we reaffirmed our commitment to reclaim every INCH of our land from encroachers.

It's a question of our survival and we shall emerge victorious. pic.twitter.com/sV0AMuacpE

— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) February 3, 2026

The encroachment drive in Hailakandi targeted the Gharmora (also spelt ‘Gharmura’) Inner Line Reserve Forest in the Damchera forest village area, as per reports. The illegal settlers here had built houses, cultivated crops, including betel nut plantations. The anti-encroachment drive affected over 500 families.

Akhil Dutta, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Hailakandi, said that while 50% of the anti-encroachment action was conducted on 2^nd February, the rest was completed on Tuesday across sectors 1, 2, 3 and 4. The officer highlighted that all the illegal houses were under the Inner Line Reserved Forest, Garmura Range, where commercial and non-forest activities are prohibited.

“Betel nut, coffee, tea or rubber plantations all fall under non-forest commercial activities. Reserved forests are not permitted for such purposes. These activities violate the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, and the eviction is being carried out to uphold the law,” the DFO said.

Assam government’s continued crackdown against illegal encroachments

In recent years, the BJP government has intensified eviction and anti-encroachment actions, freeing forest reserves, wildlife sanctuaries, and government lands. In line with Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s resolve of freeing every inch of Assam’s land from illegal encroachments, the state government has reclaimed tens of thousands of acres of land cumulatively since 2021. The government maintains that this action is necessary to preserve indigenous rights and natural resources as well as to thwart attempts by Muslims, particularly, Rohingya and Bangladeshi infiltrators, to alter local demographics.

In January 2026, a two-day eviction drive was conducted in Burhachaori Wildlife Sanctuary, which spans Sonitpur and Nagaon districts. The authorities cleared around 6,200 Bighas (830 hectares) of encroached forest land, displacing 710 illegal encroacher families. The action was taken in areas under the Tezpur Sadar and Dhekiajuli revenue circles. These included Jamuktol, Arimari, Siyalichar, Baghetapu, Galatidubi, Lathimari, Kundulichar, Purba Dubramari and Batulichar.

After the clearance of about 40 per cent of the land from the clutches of land encroachers, the Sonitpur district administration launched the eviction operation in the remaining land,” an official said.

In February 2025, the BJP administration freed over 2,099 hectares of land in Burhachapori Wildlife Sanctuary and nearby villages, which affected around 12,800 people.

In another major anti-encroachment operation, the Assam government removed encroachments from 5,250 bighas or 1,700 acres of land in the Hojai district’s Jamuna-Maudanga Reserve Forest in January 2026. The state government informed that over 1,500 families from the Muslim community had illegally occupied the area. The forest reserve comprises more than 8,000 bighas.

Bidyut Bikash Bhagawati, the district commissioner, revealed that some encroachers claimed to have lived on the land for more than thirty years. Furthermore, others alleged that they were there for roughly twenty years. The district administration added that these people had settled on forest land mainly for cultivation. They also possessed land beyond the forest zone in multiple places of the Hojai district and other regions.

It must be recalled that in November 2025, CM Sarma had said that “illegal Miyas” would not live in peace under his government, as the eviction drives would continue in the state.

On 5^th December 2025, the 38 bighas of government and forest land encroached by illegal settlers in the Nagaon district were cleared by the local administration in collaboration with the police and the Forest Department. The administration issued prior notice to around 100 families directing them to vacate the land they had illegally encroached on and built houses on. The drive freed forest land under Bhakatgaon in Khatuwal Mouza.

In the latter half of November, an anti-encroachment drive was conducted to clear 5,962 bighas (around 2000 acres) of land in the Lutumari Forest Reserve in Nagaon district, following two days of bulldozing. The eviction drive was conducted in the Chankhola, Kandapara, Juripar, Bederipar, and Majgaon areas of the Kachua Lutumari Wildlife Sanctuary under the Kampur Forest Regional Office in Nagaon district. 

It was reported that a large number of valuable trees were cut down by smugglers in the forest areas, clearing large areas of land. Later, people from various places arrived and occupied the land. According to officials, around 1,700 Muslim families had encroached upon forest land over the years, gradually establishing clustered settlements and setting up beetle nut orchards and other agricultural farms. The occupiers had built brick houses, and the administration provided electricity and set up schools.

Similar anti-encroachment action was taken in Goalpara, wherein the officials initiated the process of clearing about 1,140 bighas of land, over 376 acres, inside the Dahikata Reserve Forest. Nearly 600 families, most of them reportedly Bangladeshi infiltrators, were evicted. These operations were carried out peacefully after moving about 70% of the families who were served an eviction notice, while the rest were in the process of vacating the encroached land.

In October 2025, the Sribhumi district administration demolished 21 structures across two villages. Most of the demolished structures were residential and commercial buildings built illegally in Shibbari and Ghilaiti villages under the Patharkandi constituency. 

In August 2025, 26 hectares of land were freed from encroachment in the Rengma Reserve Forest area. The Rengma Reserve Forest falls under the Uriamghat area, in Assam’s Golaghat district. It is spread across over 827 acres.

In July 2025, an eviction drive took place in the Paikan Reserve Forest located in the Goalpara district. 140 hectares (equivalent to 1038 to 1040 bighas) of forest land had been unlawfully taken over predominantly by Muslims, who had migrated from adjacent regions or Bangladesh. Tejas Mariswamy, the Divisional Forest Officer of Goalpara, outlined that 1,080 families had built houses in this area.

On 8th July 2025, the Assam government conducted a mega eviction drive in Dhubri district to clear over 1,150 acres of government land encroached by Bengali Muslims. Displacing around 1400 families, the eviction drive took place in three places in the district, and it turned violent in the Chapar area. 

On 3rd July 2025,  an eviction drive was conducted by the state government in 3 places in Lakhimpur district. Over 300 houses belonging to Muslim families were demolished days after notices were issued to the people living in the Village Grazing Reserve areas in the district.

In June 2025, the Jorhat District Administration in Assam carried out a demolition drive to remove encroachment, including illegal residential and commercial structures on government land at Kabristan Road. However, the demolition drive faced massive protests by local Muslims who came out in support of a person named Azad Choudhary, whose illegal properties were among the properties demolished by the Jorhat Municipality Board. Choudhary had named the area ‘Dhaka Patti’, after the capital of Bangladesh.

The BJP government in Assam has maintained that all the rules and laws are being followed while conducting anti-encroachment drives, and prior notices are given before the ultimate bulldozer action. In the recent past, the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led state government has reclaimed over 40,000 to 42,500 acres of land. Despite protests, sometimes violence by Islamist mobs, as well as propaganda by their liberal cheerleaders, the Assam government has remained undeterred in its commitment to freeing Assam from illegal land encroachments and puncturing the nefarious designs of Islamists to alter the religious demography of the state.