Nagaland-Assam border issue: Forest guards accused of removing signboard in reserve forest

Dimapur, May 10 (EMN): The Ao Students’ Conference (AKM) has asked Assam government to “restore the damage done” to a signboard at Aokum village in Mokokchung district by May 12.

In a letter to the deputy commissioner of Mokokchung, the AKM stated the Assam government’s “elder brother attitude” towards its neighbouring states in the Northeast is becoming unbearable.

It said media reports about a signboard in the AKM reserve forest, which was donated by Aokum village of Tsurangkong Range in Mokokchung district, being removed by the Assam forest officials, has hurt the sentiments of the student community.

It claimed that the signboard at the reserve forest was removed by the Assam forest guards on February 13 2020, before it was erected again in the same year. However, it claimed that the same had been removed again.

The student body said that there used to be no issues when the said forest was “cleaned and burned for cultivation” in the 1990s but the Assam forest guards started patrolling “our jurisdiction and destroy our belongings and harassed the poor cultivator” in the recent years.

It warned that Assam government will be held responsible if unwanted situation arises out of its failure to restore the damage done to the signboard by Thursday.