ABSTRACT
Alienation of tribal land has been going on, formal legislation against it notwithstanding, thus pushing the tribal people into remoter forest areas where, by virtue of existing legislation covering forests, they in turn become encroachers. The dilemma of the state government is genuine; it is formally committed, according to clause 10 of the Assam Accord, to securing the removal of all encroachments from government and forest land. At least in respect of encroachments on forest land, the government has figures of a sort — of the settlements and encroachments in the riverine areas it has no clue. One category in the riverine areas poses some unique problems because the very location of the land is often a matter of dispute, land masses appearing and disappearing periodically because of the river shifting its course. Vast areas of the state have for years, and even decades, been settled upon and cultivated by people who have no formal claims on the land.
