Guwahati: Gauhati high court on Wednesday directed the Assam and Arunachal Pradesh govts to file detailed responses in a public interest litigation (PIL) alleging large-scale encroachment, deforestation and illegal construction inside two reserve forests along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border.A division bench comprising Chief Justice Ashutosh Kumar and Justice Arun Dev Choudhury asked both states to inform the court by the next hearing on Oct 5 about the action taken to clear encroachments from the affected reserve forests.The PIL, filed by Amitabh Choudhury, seeks the court’s intervention over continuing encroachment, deforestation and illegal construction within the notified reserve forests in Sonitpur, Biswanath, Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh inter-state border, particularly the Behali and Singlijan reserve forests in Biswanath district.The petition states that “official records indicate encroachment over approximately 6,733 hectares of Behali Reserve Forest and 450 hectares of Singlijan Reserve Forest.”“Within this notified forest area, 14 villages have been illegally established and since 1988, such encroachment has assumed an institutional and permanent character through the establishment of schools, churches, roads, bridges, water-supply works, electric infrastructure, transport services, security camps, etc., accompanied by repeated violence, intimidation and obstruction of Assam forest personnel, including attacks on forest camps, killings, shootings, armed resistance, abduction and assault,” it further stated.“Despite repeated communications by senior officials, no effective preventive, protective or restorative measures have been undertaken, and the State of Assam has also failed to operationalise the Forest Protection Force under the Assam Forest Protection Force Act, 1986, for protection of reserve forests and removal of trespassers,” the PIL added.The court noted that appearing for the petitioner, senior advocate HK Das submitted that “there is no legislative vacuum in providing powers to the state to evacuate such encroachers, but such powers are, for the reasons not known to the petitioner, not being utilised”.The petitioner submitted that the alleged encroachments violate constitutional guarantees under Articles 14 and 21, as well as the environmental obligations under Articles 48A and 51A(g), as well as provisions of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, and the Assam Forest Regulation.After hearing the submissions, the bench directed Assam additional advocate general PN Goswami and Arunachal Pradesh senior govt advocate A Chandran to file responses before the next hearing and apprise the court of measures taken to remove encroachments from the two reserve forests.
