Survivor of Assam’s forest eviction drive and mother of two killed

Monday’s gunfire during an eviction effort in Assam’s Bura Chapori Wildlife Sanctuary claimed the life of one lady and injured six others. A forester and two house guards were wounded in the retaliatory shooting that claimed the life of 40-year-old Rahima Khatun, a mother of two. Violence that broke out over land clearing also injured three of Khatun’s relatives.

In February of this year, 1,282 hectares of land where more than 2,000 people had built houses were removed by government authorities, with the reserve forest and wetland in Sonitpur district at the center of the operation. However, according to a story by the Indian Express, residents of the forest departed “peacefully” before the bulldozers arrived and destroyed their houses.

However, displaced family ultimately started going back to their original homes, where they built homes and started living. According to the forest department, people who had been kicked out in February allegedly tried to relocate there.

A dispute between the two groups began on Monday when a team from the forest department headed by Divisional Forest Officer of Nagaon Wildlife, Jayanta Deka, arrived at the scene. Khatun was left dead as the altercation intensified, and her husband was subsequently taken to the hospital after suffering gunshot wounds.

The media said that Khatun’s family was residing a few kilometers distant from the scene in a kutcha hut. They had relocated here, where they had formerly had their home, put up tarps, and were sleeping with their livestock as a result of severe rains and a rising water level.