The affected community alleged that the forest department has violated Section 4(5) of Forest Act 2006 by undertaking the eviction while the Guigailong Forest Rights Committee is yet to complete the verification process as mandated. Further protestors charged the forest department of giving only 4-5 day notice prior to the eviction instead of giving 15 day notice
Lelen Vaiphei
A day after the Manipur forest department evicting 14 temporary shops which it said encroached recently on the forest at Guigailong, Langol Tarung in Imphal West district, residents of the affected area launched an indefinite sit-in-protest, alleging that the eviction was illegal and forceful.
“Yesterday’s eviction was carried out without following the mandatory legal procedures of conducting public hearing and assessing public impact. Hence the action of the forest department is forceful and illegal,” said R. Kaningdai, a leader of the committee formed by the affected people called the Joint Action Committee Against Forced Eviction of Guigailong Tribal Vendors.
Protestors of the eviction drive sat at the Guigailong waiting shed holding placards which read, “Respect Tribal Rights”, “No to Illegal Eviction” etc. The affected community alleged that the forest department has violated Section 4(5) of Forest Act 2006 by undertaking the eviction while the Guigailong Forest Rights Committee is yet to complete the verification process as mandated. Further protestors charged the forest department of giving only 4-5 day notice prior to the eviction instead of giving 15 day notice.
On 9th July, forest official and guards along with a huge number of police personnel arrived at the Guigailong village and dismantled and evicted 14 temporary shops.
The Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) RK Amarjit Singh said that the eviction drive is a part of the continuous process to protect the reserved forests from encroachers. The DFO further appealed to the people, inhabiting around the reserved forest area not to encroach or construct new structures within the reserved forest area. Singh said that the 14 shops were evicted as they were encroachments that happened after the 13rd December 2005.
While admitting that there are encroachers on other parts of the forests as well, the forest officer said that action will be taken on them too after due legal proceeding is completed on encroachments which took place before December 13, 2005.
