Guwahati (Assam) [India], July 15 (ANI): Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday alleged that the state's indigenous population is facing a 'demographic invasion' by people belonging to a particular religion who are now trying to alter the demographic composition of Upper Assam.

Addressing a press conference at Lok Sewa Bhawan in Guwahati, CM Sarma said that the state government has cleared over 1.19 lakh bighas of land from encroachers in the last four and a half years.

'Assam has faced an existential threat due to rampant illegal infiltration and a planned encroachment to alter the demography of districts. We stand firm to protect the interests of Assam. In Assam, the state government has cleared nearly 40,000 acres of land from encroachers, equivalent to approximately 160 square kilometres. If you compare the landmass, this is equivalent to or more than Chandigarh,' the Chief Minister said.

He added, 'We have evicted people from forest land, grazing reserve, tribal belt and blocks, government lands together. It is not that those whom we have evicted are landless; they have land in a specific area, and they go to a new area to capture the land of the forest and to change the demography of the constituency.'

He warned that the pattern of demographic shifts witnessed earlier in Lower and Middle Assam is now emerging in Upper Assam.

'After demographic invasion in Lower Assam and Middle Assam, today we are seeing the beginning of democratic invasion in Upper Assam. If we could see the beginning of demographic invasion in Lower Assam and Middle Assam, we could probably stop it. However, we didn't realise at the beginning that it would become irreversible. Today, the new move has started in Upper Assam. It started in Kaziranga, and we stopped. Today, they have gone to another constituency, and they will continue to do so. After 20 years, you will see that in every constituency, there is a voting of 40,000-45,000. Once they become a political force, the local leaders will not allow any eviction, and consequently, the Assamese people will lose their identity,' CM Sarma said.

He further alleged that the demographic shifts are part of a calculated plan, citing data from recent eviction drives.

The Chief Minister said, 'When we conducted an eviction drive in Lakhimpur district, we found that 74 families came from Barpeta district to Lakhimpur, seven families came from Goalpara district, two families from South Salmara Mankachar district and many other families came from Nagaon district, and they encroached on the lands in Lakhimpur. It was a conspiracy to change the demography in Lakhimpur.'

The CM also shared year-wise data on land reclaimed from encroachers, stating that in 2021-22 the state government had freed 2604.12 hectares of land from encroachers, in 2022-23 it was 4397.50 hectares, 3401.92 hectares of land in 2023-24, 961.548 hectares of land in 2024-25 and in this year till July 12 a total of 638.427 hectares of land have been freed from encroachers.

'Forest destruction is one issue, another issue is that some people moved to other places and tried to change the demography. A process has started to change the demography in Upper Assam. If we do not stop it now, in the next 20 years, forest lands will be destroyed and demographics will be changed. If you look at the voter list in Lakhimpur, you will see how demographic changes happened in the past 15 years,' CM Sarma said.

The Chief Minister also said the government is taking steps to utilise cleared lands for productive purposes to prevent future encroachments.

'We are not just freeing up lands from encroachers but also preventing further encroachment through utilising them for productive purposes. In Lakhimpur, we have planted Som saplings in the evicted land, which will support Muga silkworm rearing and the economic growth of indigenous people,' he added. (ANI)