Deroi-Rangoli Reserve Forest: 1,111 hectares cleared of encroachers

SIVASAGAR, July 2 ? Of 3420 hectares of illegally occupied land out of 4,834 hectares of Deroi-Rangoli Reserve Forest in Sivasagar district, 1,111 hectares have been thoroughly cleared of illegal encroachers by forest-officials during the 10-day eviction drive from June 3 to 13 last. The DFO, Forests, Sivasagar informed that most of the encroachers were established businessmen grabbing forest land rampantly in guise of small tea growers. The entire Deroi-Rangoli Reserved Forest was reduced to denuded wasteland area by unscrupulous timber traders who recklessly felled valuable trees. Environmentalists and nature lovers of the district were sore over apparent in difference of the forest department over large-scale encroachment of forest land in all its seven Reserved Forests i.e., Deroi-Rangoli-Geleki Reserved Forest, Abhayapuri Reserved Forest, Dilihi Reserved Forest, Sapekhati Reserved Forest, Sola Reserved Forest and Panidihing Reserved Forest. But as eviction drive began the nature lovers welcomed the move. The journalists fraternity in Charaideo sub-division and Sivasagar also supported the government move.

Meanwhile, Sivasagar District Journalists Association, through an appeal to the District Administration, called upon the security personnel deputed to the eviction site not to misbehave with press persons covering such events as had been reported by some scribes in Moran of police excess.

Forest department is likely to undertake similar drives in the Sapekhati and Panidihing Reserved Forests soon. In Sapekhati RF, outof a thousand hectares, encroachers have settled illegally in almost 1,735 hectares. In Panidihing RF, only about a hundred hectares have remained free of encroachment outof 11,000 hectares of original reserved area. Part of the Panidihing RF (3393 hectares) and the adjoining areas have been declared as a bird sanctuary by the government in 1995.