Thousands of illegal migrants from chaporis try to build homes in national park

Guwahati, May 7: Several thousand suspected illegal migrants waded through Dhansiri river carrying house-building materials and swamped Orang National Park in Darrang yesterday before being chased away by army and forest guards on elephant backs, who were even forced to fire in the air.

The invaders, who came from various chaporis (sand bars), entered through the park’s southern border and built houses with materials they had brought along.

“We dismantled about 50 houses made of bamboo, constructed during the course of the day,” the divisional forest officer of the national park, Sushil Daila, said over phone.

He said the raiders came with their cattle and household articles and certainly had plans to stay.

“We had to use elephants to chase these people away,” he said.

The invaders chose Hazarbigha, located at the confluence of the Brahmaputra and the Dhansiri, on the boundary of the smallest national park in the state, to build their homes.

“A few houses were built inside the core area of the park,” the Orang official said.

The unprecedented incident triggered an alarm in the state forest department, raising fears that there would be more such attempts in the days to come. Apart from beefing up security along the Orang boundary, the forest department has sounded an alert at Kaziranga National Park.

There are allegations of illegal migrants, mostly from Bangladesh, encroaching government land near Kaziranga as well.

A patrol party of forest guards first spotted the invasion at Orang yesterday afternoon.

“They immediately informed us about the development as the few forest guards were no force in front of the massive group of invaders, armed with sharp weapons,” Daila said.

The Orang authorities immediately informed the army and around 4pm an eviction drive was launched.

Forest guards on elephants began breaking down houses while army personnel followed on their heels.

“The invaders began attacking our men, forcing the army personnel to fire several rounds in the air,” the official said.

They were finally evicted after a three-hour drive.

“They crossed the river and went back to the chaporis from where they came,” Daila said.

Sources in the forest department said the setters in the char areas along the Brahmaputra near the national parks, especially the Kaziranga and Orang National Parks, were involved in rhino poaching and most of these settlers are Bangladeshi migrants.

During a raid conducted by security personnel at a few villages located on the fringe areas of Orang a couple of months back, weapons and traps used in poaching were recovered along with body parts of animals.

Four persons were arrested in this connection.

Interestingly, all the arrested persons — Md Abdul Rashid, Gulam Osmani, Md Ghiyasuddin and Md Ayub Ali — are suspected Bangladeshi nationals.

The verification process is under way, a police source said.

Rashid, a renowned poacher, had surrendered earlier but given the fact that a .303 rifle was recovered from his possession, he may still be involved in poaching.

A police source said the numerous chaporis (sandbars) located along the Brahmaptra have turned into breeding grounds for poachers.

“The nationalities of a large number of people who have settled in these chaporis are suspect. We cannot confirm whether these people are illegal migrants but if we conduct a proper survey, many would turn out to be illegal migrants, who have crossed over the international border only recently,” a police official in Darrang district said.

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