Overview

• Eviction notices served on August 1 gave occupants 15 days to leave, prompting many families to dismantle homes voluntarily ahead of the August 17 operation.
• The administration mobilized 20 excavators, 10 bulldozers and between 600 and 1,000 police officers across four zones to oversee the clearance.
• On August 18, demolition crews razed a mosque within the grazing reserve and evictees briefly clashed with reporters, leading authorities to barricade the site and limit media access.
• Officials say the reclaimed land will support an afforestation drive under the Social Forestry department as Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma pledged to persist in freeing Assam’s lands from encroachment.
• Displaced families, many of whom lost ancestral land to floods decades ago, now shelter under tarpaulins and are pressing the government for a formal rehabilitation package.