In Assam evictions exceed demands for development
Sanjib Barua writes: The demographic and political history of the region, as well as displacement and evictions due to riverbank erosion, have long been an explosive topic.
Encroachment of land designated as “government land”, “reserved forest” or “grazing land” and the eviction of “encroachers” has long been a major topic of politics in Assam. The recent evictions in Sipajhar are consistent with this history, but they are also different in important ways.
Encroachments and evictions are not unique to Assam. But they are more general and widespread – and they span the urban-rural divide – due to some peculiarities of the physical landscape and political and demographic history of the region.
Assam regularly loses large tracts of land due to river bank erosion. Unlike annual floods, which receive significant media attention – although yielding little through a long-term flood risk management strategy – riverbank erosion is less dramatic, and it barely makes the news. A large number of people are regularly displaced and evicted by river bank erosion. An article by Aranyak Saikia, an IAS officer, based on his experience as assistant commissioner of a flood-prone district in Assam, has a lot to say (‘Not just floods, Assam needs an urgent, long-term strategy on erosion). is’, IE, September 12, 2021). River bank erosion uproots people from their land – their most important asset – forcing them to relocate. They believe that some of the displaced take refuge in government lands, protected forests or wildlife sanctuaries. Saikia writes, “Undocumented migration to Assam has been a historical problem, but today a large part of the encroachment is also by families that have been uprooted by erosion”.
Assam and Northeast India have been a settlement border for more than a century, attracting large-scale immigration from the rest of the subcontinent. While the colonial government that characterized Assam as a barren land initially encouraged immigration and settlement by farmers from deltaic eastern Bengal to raise revenue, it also introduced the line system to demarcate areas where immigrants settled. could. But the colonial state found it difficult to protect non-commercial areas against immigration pressure and had to reserve many forest reserves, pasture reserves and tribal belts. In fact, the state acknowledged its failure to stop the settlers in those places. This process continues in old and new forms since the end of colonialism.
It was a costly political mistake for the AGP. This was the only major factor that separated the Bodos from the ethnic Assamese political society and radicalized the Bodo movement. From a movement centered on Bodo culture and deprived of educational and employment opportunities, the focus of the Bodo movement shifted to the demand for a separate state, which was captured by the slogan “divide Assam 50-50”.
Assam has come a long way since then. The present state government of Assam does not take any political risk. Evicted encroached areas are carefully identified and targeted for development projects, which clearly have the foreseeable eviction of alleged encroachers. Their religious and ethnic affiliations are reflected in the project’s design. Rapid work is done to start the development project soon after physical removal by police, bulldozers and elephants is completed.
The so-called experiment was fast-tracked in a unique way. The state government has already identified a group of farmers to be part of the Multipurpose Agricultural Producer Organization. There was no explanation as to why none of the alleged encroachers could be included among the potential beneficiaries of the project.
The government, he said, had already deployed an advance party of the Ecological Task Force (ETF) of the Indian Army’s 134 Battalion to carry out “large-scale afforestation activities” in the ejected area; And a veterinary expert team from Gujarat was already present in the region to oversee a pilot project for introduction of Gir cow.
In Assam evictions exceed demands for development
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by News East India staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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