Eviction in Assam’s Orang NP to clear animal corridor

Tezpur (Assam): A four-day-long eviction drive to clear an “encroached” animal corridor in Assam’s Orang National Park was launched by the government on Sunday amid heavy security, a senior official said.

The operation will be carried out in Sonitpur district for the first two days while the exercise will be conducted for the remaining two days in Darrang district.

The Orang National Park is spread over an area of 89 sq km in Sonitpur and Darrang districts and the eviction exercise is being carried out to clear “encroached” land for an animal corridor to Kaziranga National Park.

Sonitpur deputy commissioner Deba Kumar Mishra said all the areas to be covered by the eviction drive are

char’ (riverine) areas in the district.

“Eviction drive was carried out in five char areas today and it will be done in another four such spots on Monday. The drive went off smoothly today,” he said.

Nearly 800 families were residing in the encroached land and the majority of them had already cleared the area, the official said.

Over 13,000 acre in the National Park is targeted to be cleared during the operation, of which more than 6,800 acre are in Sonitpur.