One woman was shot dead and six people including three forest guards were injured at Assam’s Burha Chapori Wildlife Sanctuary on Monday in a clash between people who had been evicted from the area earlier this year and forest department staff.
The deceased woman has been identified as Rahima Khatun. Three others were also injured in gunfire by forest guards in the afternoon.
The wildlife sanctuary saw a massive eviction exercise in February as part of an anti-encroachment drive held in government, forest and sattra land of 1,282 hectares, where more than 2,000 families were estimated to be living.
According to Nagaon Wildlife Divisional Forest Officer Jayanta Deka, another round of evictions were carried out in May after, he said, some of the evicted families set up living structures in the area once again.
He told The Indian Express that a group of people returned to the area again on Saturday and that the firing by the forest guards was a retaliatory action to an “attack” by the people there.
“A group of us including me, the range officer and other forest staff had gone to the area to explain to them that they needed to leave the area. But some of the women began chasing us with knives, machetes and other sharp objects. There were almost 1,000 people. As an act of self-defence, we did some blank fires. Three forest guards are in the hospital as a result of the clash,” he said.
Police from both the Sonitpur and Nagaon districts arrived at the area. A police officer said the situation came under control by the evening.
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Locals said the people who had returned to the area had done so because the area where they had put up tents after the eviction had become inundated with floodwater.
“Rahima Khatun’s family had come the previous day and put up a tarpaulin tent because the land there is higher and they needed a place to keep their goats and cows,” said Abdul Noor, Nagaon district president of the All Assam Minority Students’ Union, who was present at the site of violence.
The wildlife sanctuary covers an area of around 44 sq km and among the wildlife supported by it are one-horned rhinoceros, tigers, leopards and elephants.
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