The Gauhati High Court has asked Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Mizoram to form a high-level committee to clear encroachments in forest areas along the inter-state borders of the four northeastern states.
The court on Tuesday was hearing a petition filed in 2018 by Asom Basaok, a Guwahati-based NGO, and another petition in 2023 by two residents of Sreebhumi district, seeking removal encroachments from forest areas of Assam.
“Convene a high-level meeting of the chief secretaries and chiefs of forest departments of each of the states as well as other relevant stakeholders for formulating a comprehensive plan for making the forest area encroachment free,” a HC bench comprising chief justice Ashutosh Kumar and justice Arun Dev Choudhury said in the order.
The HC direction comes at a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in Assam is carrying out a large-scale eviction campaign to remove encroachers from government and forest lands. The biggest such exercise started at Uriamghat near the Assam-Nagaland border on Tuesday, where 1,500 hectares of forest land will be cleared of over 2,500 illegal structures.
Though the public interest litigations (PILs) were related to forest land in Assam, in July 2023, the HC observed that significant areas of forests located at Assam’s common borders with Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Mizoram had been encroached upon. Following this, the court made all four states party to the case.
“It appears that several rounds of meetings have taken place between the officials of the states to come to a consensus and build a roadmap for making forest encroachment free... This court believes nothing can remain unresolved with a fruitful dialogue,” the court observed.
The court appreciated that none of the four states brought up issues related to border disputes between them during the deliberations. Assam shares a border with Mizoram, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh, and the three states are engaged in talks with Assam at present to resolve the disputes.
“Border disputes would be resolved but before that, what is of utmost importance is that the forest area falling under the territorial jurisdiction of the States ought to be free of all encroachments,” the order read.
“This would be in compliance with the Supreme Court judgment in that regard. Without making the entire forest area encroachment free, the biotic pressure cannot be eased,” it added.
The court directed all four states to inform about the resolutions taken by the high-level committee and actions initiated by the next date of hearing on November 4.
