Assam Displaces Minorities as ‘Bangladeshis’ to Favour Corporate Giants
Continuous floods and riverbank erosion have severely altered Assam’s geography, swallowing over 4.27 lakh hectares of land, roughly 7.5 percent of the state’s total area, since the devastating 1950 earthquake. With an average of 8,000 to 10,000 hectares of fertile land washing away annually, approximately 25 to 30 lakh people have been rendered homeless and landless across the state. However, civil society leaders note, ‘The human-made administrative crisis of mass evictions has now surpassed the wrath of natural disasters, pushing vulnerable communities into absolute destitution’.
Between 2021 and 2026, the state government conducted at least 33 major eviction drives under the official rationale of freeing land from illegal encroachment. These operations have razed over 22,000 homesteads and displaced more than one lakh people across districts like Goalpara, Darrang, Hojai, Kamrup Metro, Lakhimpur, Sonitpur, and Nagaon. Human rights activists argue that these selective actions disproportionately target religious minorities, who make up over 90 percent of the victims, branding erosion-affected citizens as outsiders without providing them alternative shelter.
While displaced families are removed as encroachers, thousands of bighas of cleared agricultural and tribal lands are being transferred to major corporate entities for industrial expansion. In July 2025, an eviction in Dhubri’s Chapar circle displaced 1,400 families, clearing 3,500 bighas for the Adani Group’s 3,200 MW thermal power plant. Similar large-scale land allocations have been initiated for the Ambani Group in Karbi Anglong, alongside significant land parcels granted to the Tata Group, Patanjali Ayurved, and Mahabal Cements within protected areas.
Legal scholars emphasise that these mass drives blatantly violate fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 21 and Article 21A of the Indian Constitution, alongside Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Displaced children have been abruptly cut off from formal education, while thousands of families endure severe malnutrition in temporary tents without basic sanitation or healthcare. The Gauhati High Court has repeatedly reprimanded the state administration for failing to ensure proper constitutional safeguards and sluggish rehabilitation efforts for affected citizens.
To restore social stability and protect human rights, policy experts and former legislators have outlined five urgent corrective measures for the state government to implement immediately: advance legal notices served at least three months before any planned eviction drive; complete rehabilitation and alternative land allocation guaranteed before removing residents from their homes; Essential services including clean drinking water, medical care, and sanitation assured in temporary relief camps; immediate school admission arrangements for displaced children to prevent disruption to their basic education; mandatory corporate accountability, ensuring local landless people become primary stakeholders in commercial projects on allocated lands.
Without a constructive policy shift that balances administrative rule of law with basic human empathy, Assam risks deepening social polarisation and economic vulnerability. Human rights organisations urge the government to cease uncoordinated displacement and focus on comprehensive land reform and sustainable erosion management. The future of millions of riverine inhabitants depends on whether the state chooses corporate expansion over the fundamental constitutional rights of its poorest and most vulnerable citizens.
