More Than 1,100 Muslim Families Evicted in India's Assam State

The Assam government has demolished the homes of more than 600 Muslim families in the Lutumari Longjap Reserved Forest in Nagaon district, following the eviction of more than 500 families across three other districts a day earlier.

The eviction drives took place on October 17 and 18, according to government officials and media reports. A senior Assam Forest Department official confirmed details of the operation to Indian news outlet The Scroll.

Authorities said the families had been living on forest land illegally. The latest operation in Lutumari was part of an eviction drive that continued for a second day.

According to the report, a total of 547 families were evicted across three districts on October 17 under heavy security arrangements. These included 336 families in Nagaon, 59 in Golaghat and 152 in Hojai. Most of those affected were Bengali-speaking Muslims.

In Lutumari, families had reportedly lived for decades on more than 300 hectares of land within the reserved forest. However, affected residents disputed the government's claim that they had illegally occupied the land, saying they had been settled there by the authorities.

Residents Say Government Settled Them Decades Ago
Abdur Nur, a 44-year-old resident of Lutumari whose home was demolished on Sunday, said the government had resettled his family and others in the area in 1974.

“We are originally from the nearby town of Juria. Our ancestors were landless, so the government established settlements here for us. In total, 300 landless families were given four bighas of land each,” Nur said.

He added that residents had challenged the eviction in the Gauhati High Court but had not received relief.

Nur also alleged that more than 10 mosques were demolished during the operation, including some that were over 50 years old.

“We used to work as labourers for the Forest Department. That was why many of us were brought here,” he said.

The allegations concerning the settlement of families and the demolition of religious structures could not be independently verified from the information available in the report.

Forest Workers' Organisation Had Opposed Eviction
In June, the All India Union of Forest Working People urged the Assam government to halt the planned eviction of residents from villages in the Lutumari Longjap Reserved Forest.

The organisation argued that residents of four villages in the area had been settled under the taungya system of forest management, introduced during British colonial rule. It said the residents should therefore not simply be classified as encroachers on common forest land.

Under the taungya system, communities living in forest areas worked under the Forest Department while cultivating food crops alongside commercially valuable trees.

The system was introduced by the British in the mid-19th century and was subsequently adopted in parts of Assam.

The four villages in the forest area are Kandarp Longjap, Padumoni, Hatijur and No. 9 Kheroni.

Nearly 19,000 Families Evicted Under BJP Rule
Data compiled by The Scroll indicate that nearly 19,000 families have been evicted from government land in Assam during the past 10 years of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rule.

The figures were compiled from information provided by the state's Revenue and Disaster Management Department and administrative authorities in the districts concerned.

Most of the families evicted during this period were Muslims, according to the report.

The latest operations have renewed attention to the circumstances of long-established settlements in Assam's forest areas, as well as the competing claims of forest conservation, land ownership and the rights of displaced communities.