Vigil up near border of Mizoram, Assam after fresh incident

A group of farmers from Mizoram attempted to clear forest areas at Assam’s Hailakandi district last week, Assam officials said on Tuesday

Updated on: Dec 28, 2022, 08:54:45 IST

By Biswa Kalyan Purkayastha, Silchar

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A group of farmers from Mizoram attempted to clear forest areas at Assam’s Hailakandi district last week, Assam officials said on Tuesday.

The Assam officials, however, said the farmers were not aware of the border area and the incident did not appear to be one of encroachment, amid an ongoing border dispute between the two states.

Hailakandi divisional forest officer (DFO) Akhil Dutta said the incident took place on December 24, prompting authorities and police to immediately rush to the spot.

“It happened in Gallacherra area on December 24. We found some Mizo villagers clearing forest on our land. However, they stopped the work and returned after we asked them to leave,” Dutta said.

Dutta said the villagers told him they were not aware about the state border. “It wasn’t an attempt to encroach Assam’s land. The illiterate villagers did not know where the border line was,” he said.

The DFO said that there is a border outpost (BOP) at Gallacherra which is keeping strict vigil on activities in the area. “We are keeping a strict eye on the border. This time, it was not an attempt of encroachment,” he added.

A team of police headed by Hailakandi superintendent of police Navaneet Mahanta visited the border areas after the incident. “We spoke to the forest officials and as per our assessments, there is no tension in the border areas as of now,” he said.

HT reached out to Mizoram officials for a comment on the matter but did not get one immediately.

In February this year, Hailakandi police claimed 1.5 hectares of forest area was cleared near Gallacherra by villagers from Mizoram. Several big trees and hundreds of bamboos were destroyed and alleged the involvement of over a 100 Mizoram residents in the act.

Police said the Mizoram villagers were trying to clear more areas but stopped after intervention by Assam Police.

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