Guwahati, Oct 23: The Assam government on Friday stressed the use of satellite technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to detect and prevent the earliest signs of encroachment in reserved forests.
Speaking at the launch of the Forest Department’s new online transfer portal, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said early detection was crucial to preventing encroachments from developing into large settlements that become difficult to evict and raise complex human and administrative concerns.
“If we can use satellites to monitor our forests, we will come to know about the first encroachment in a reserved forest, the first tree felled. If we turn back the first encroachment, then it will prevent hue and cry,” he said.
The Chief Minister said authorities often failed to act at the initial stage, allowing encroachments to grow before initiating eviction drives, which subsequently attract public scrutiny and raise questions about the people living on the land.
“After the settlement of 200 to 300 families, there comes multiple questions, if the family is Assamese, suspicious nationals and others. At the end, the victim is forest, which experiences loss of forest cover,” he said.
“Why cannot we target the very first house that is built over reserve forest land?” he asked, stressing the need for an AI-based alert system supported by periodic satellite images and data on forest cover and land use.
Under the proposed mechanism, satellite images indicating the first signs of deforestation or encroachment could be sent to divisional forest officers (DFOs), prompting them to inspect the affected areas and prevent further occupation.
“If we could not bring AI alert system with periodic data and images of forest and its land use, if we get a warning for the first house erected in reserve forest, we can make the person understand and send them back without force,” Sarma said.
Sarma maintained that deploying forest guards and other officials alone would not be sufficient to prevent encroachment without technological intervention.
He stressed that accountability within the Forest Department must accompany technological surveillance, so that officials act when the first signs of encroachment or tree felling are detected rather than waiting for settlements to expand.
Database and phased eviction
Sarma said the government had succeeded in reducing the rate of forest encroachment in Assam in recent years. He also cited the release of nearly 600 hectares of forest land from encroachment about a week ago.
Calling for a comprehensive database of encroachments across the state's reserved forests, the Chief Minister said the government should identify the extent of occupation and undertake phased measures to reclaim forest land in accordance with Supreme Court guidelines.
“Other than Assamese community members who can seek land patta under forest land law, we should create a database on the number of encroachments across Assam reserve forest land. As per Supreme Court guidelines, we should also phase-wise work on freeing forest land from encroachment. This should include reserve forest as well as proposed reserve forest,” he said.
Sarma said the government needed to prioritise two key interventions.
"Identifying the first instance of tree felling and detecting the first house erected within a reserved forest," he said.
He pointed out that addressing encroachment at these early stages would be critical to protecting forest cover and reducing the need for large-scale eviction drives.