Suspected illegal migrants from Bangladesh who have swarmed numerous sand bar isles (called “char” in local parlance) in the mighty Brahmaputra river in Assam have posed serious threat to the wildlife protection areas in Assam because of their organised attempts to encroach upon those wildlife areas and their direct or indirect involvement in poaching.

These persons of suspect nationality have already encroached upon sizeable portion of numerous wildlife protection areas in the state which has five national parks and 20 wildlife sanctuaries spread over an areas of 3,925 sq km and 325 reserved forests spread over 13,870 sq km. The State Forest Department find it difficult to keep these belligerent encroachers at bay. A source in the Forest Department said, some of these encroachers enjoy backing of certain political parties in the state where parties are in rat race to set up support base of the immigrant population.

The threat from these sand bar isles dwellers of suspect nationality has come to such a pass in the Rajiv Gandhi National Park at Orang in Darrang district of north Assam, that the Forest Department had to take help from the Army to evict over 1000 such encroachers armed with sharp weapons who had set up mud houses and came with their women and children inside the national park known for its treasure trove of one-horned rhino and tiger. Forest guards mounted on trained elephants who were backed by army personnel, launched an emergency operation inside the national park three days back to demolish mud houses built by those encroachers in the southern portion of the park. Senior forest official informed that some mud houses were built in the core area of the park with a total area of 78 sq km.

“Handful of forest guards was no match for about a thousand encroachers armed with sharp weapons. So, we had to bank on army personnel and use trained elephants to chase them away,” the official said.

Suspected illegal Bangladeshi settlers on sand bar isles along the Brahmaputra river near the Kaziranga and the Rajiv Gandhi National Park were involved in rhino poaching. During a recent raid conducted by security personnel in few such settlements near the Rajiv Gandhi National Park, weapons and traps used in poaching were recovered along with some animal parts. Four persons - Mohammed Abdul Rashid, Gulam Osmani, Mohammed Ghiyasuddin and Mohammed Ayub Ali-all suspected Bangladeshi national, were arrested during the operation.