Assam: 1 dead, 7 injured in clash between forest guards, alleged encroachers at wildlife sanctuary

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Sonitpur district of Assam, officials said. Nagaon Wildlife Divisional Forest Officer Jayanta Deka claimed that alleged encroachers, who were earlier evicted from the forest, have been «trying to occupy land again» inside the sanctuary in the past few days. «Today, around 800-900 people armed with machetes, sticks and other sharp objects came to Chitalmari camp to encroach land.

Our people tried to speak with them, but they instead attacked the forest guards,» he told PTI over the phone. At least three forest guards were injured in the attack by the villagers, who came from various areas of the neighbouring Nagaon district on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra river, Deka said. «There were around 12 forest guards in the camp.

In self-defence, they fired in the air to disperse the mob. In the melee, probably some bullets hit the crowd also. The local police have arrived at the spot and they told us that one woman has died,» he said.

A police officer said that at least four people from the crowd sustained bullet injuries in the clash. The deceased woman has been identified as Rahima Khatun, who succumbed to her injuries when she was taken to a hospital, he said. All the other injured people have been sent to Nagaon for treatment, the police officer said.

The villagers, on the other hand, claimed that they were taking shelter in the highland of the forest because their houses in nearby villages have been inundated due to flood. «Our cattle and poultry sheds are under water due to incessant rain in the last few days. That is why we constructed temporary sheds with tarpaulins, but the forest guards came to evict us, alleging that we have set up houses by encroaching forest land,» said Rahmat Khan, one of the villagers.