On April 24, 2020, the Odisha forest department demolished the homes of 32 forestdwelling families in Sagada village on the grounds that they were encroaching on reserved forest land. They did not get any notice prior to the demolition. The operation was led by the divisional forest officer of South Kalahandi and subcollector of Bhawanipatna. As the demolition drive was in progress, local advocate Siddharth Naik reached the spot and tried to intervene. But he was sent away by the forest department. The government defended the demolition and consequent eviction by saying that the forest dwellers were encroachers and belonged to another village 15 kilometres away. Prafulla Samantara, a forest rights activist from the state, told LCW that the homes of the affected families were in a remote village and were destroyed in the rains, so they had migrated to Sagada six months earlier. They settled close to the panchayat office as it was convenient for them to get wage labour work, ration and Covid19 relief supplies. However, they were evicted as they had allegedly built their houses on reserved forest land. The forest department says it has shifted the evicted families to their original village and also gave each family three months worth of supplies under the public distribution system, along with Covid19 cash incentive of INR 1,000. Samantara has written to the state chief secretary demanding suspension of the officials who ordered the eviction as well as better compensation to the displaced people.