At a time when the eviction drive at the reserved forest areas in Assam has become a controversial issue, satellite imageries have clearly shown that the forest cover in the state, especially in the north bank of the Brahmaputra, is fast vanishing due to organized and mass encroachment. The Assam Remote Sensing Application Centre (ARSAC) which conducted a satellite survey found that 101918.74 hectares of forest land when the notified forest areas have been turned into agricultural lands.