Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday, 4 July 2026, shared video evidence of wild elephants returning to the southern periphery of Sonai Rupai Wildlife Sanctuary, citing the result of anti-encroachment drives conducted roughly three years ago that cleared what he described as three decades of illegal occupation.

Context

In his post, CM Sarma stated: 'Three decades of illegal encroachment, cleared three years ago and Nature has reclaimed what was rightfully Hers. The majestic elephants are back at the southern periphery of Sonai Rupai Wildlife Sanctuary.' He added that 'eviction DOES result in restoration and its continuation will be OUR policy,' signalling that the Assam government intends to sustain such drives across the state's protected areas.

Sonai Rupai Wildlife Sanctuary, located in Sonitpur district of Assam, is a critical corridor for wild elephants in the region. The return of elephants to the sanctuary's southern edge is being presented by the Chief Minister as direct ecological evidence that habitat reclamation through eviction yields measurable conservation outcomes.

Policy Backdrop

Assam has conducted periodic anti-encroachment operations in reserved forests and wildlife sanctuaries under the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation since the 1990s. These drives have at times been contentious, given that many long-term occupants were settled communities, but successive governments have defended them as necessary to comply with national wildlife protection laws.

At the national level, Project Elephant — a Central government scheme launched in 1992 — has provided the policy framework for protecting wild elephant populations and their migratory habitats across India, including Assam. State-level eviction drives in protected areas align with this framework by restoring movement corridors that encroachment had fragmented over decades.

The Sarma administration, which took office in May 2021, has made forest and sanctuary evictions a visible part of its governance identity, framing them as both an environmental and a rule-of-law imperative.

Stakeholders and Impact

The most immediate beneficiaries of the restored habitat are the wild elephant herds whose movement had been constrained by human settlements inside the sanctuary's buffer zones. Reduced fragmentation of forest corridors is widely associated with lower human-elephant conflict, as animals are less likely to stray into agricultural land when their natural range is accessible.

Former illegal occupants of the cleared land remain a sensitive stakeholder group. Assam's eviction drives have historically drawn criticism from civil society groups who argue that rehabilitation of displaced families must accompany forest reclamation. The government's stated position, as reiterated by CM Sarma's post, prioritises ecological restoration and legal compliance over continued occupation of protected land.

Wildlife conservationists and forest department officials are likely to track changes in elephant movement data, conflict incidents, and vegetation recovery as indicators of whether the restoration is sustained over time.

What's Next

CM Sarma's explicit declaration that eviction-led restoration 'will be OUR policy' suggests further operations are planned across other wildlife sanctuaries and reserved forests in Assam. Observers will watch for official announcements on the next round of drives, as well as any forest department reports documenting changes in elephant population movement or a reduction in human-elephant conflict incidents near previously encroached zones.

The political signal is equally significant: with assembly elections on the horizon in the northeastern states, the BJP-led Assam government is positioning ecological stewardship as a governance achievement, one that it intends to deepen rather than moderate.