Majuli: The nightmare of repeated erosions swallowing up their land and their living continues to haunt the indigenous communities of the world’s largest riverine island — Majuli.Dipankar Dutta (23), living in Saraati village in the lower Majuli area, says his family has lost their home 11 times to the Brahmaputra, ever since his father was a child. As the state goes to the polls, Dipankar and the residents of nine other villages of the island that have been affected the most by erosion worry about survival, with the situation likely to only get worse.
“Will there finally be a solution to a problem that has plagued Majuli for over a century?” is all that Dipankar wants to ask the candidates in the fray for the upcoming assembly elections. Dipankar and his family currently live in a house built on a land offered to them by members of the Mishing tribe out of sympathy.“Every election, politicians come to our village to seek votes. However, when we place our demand before them, they quietly listen and leave,” Dipankar said.Four years back, his family shifted to their current location. However, Dipankar laments that despite belonging to one of the indigenous communities of the state that the BJP govt promised to provide land pattas to, they have no land rights.Raghumani Das has lost his home to erosion thrice since childhood. “When I was a child, our home was 3.5 km away from our present residential location. That location has now been engulfed by the Brahmaputra,” Raghumani said.Raghumani’s family had some ancestral agricultural land in the Samaguri village, where they had built a home. It’s a low-lying area and gets flooded easily. Raghumani said even geo bags provided by the govt has failed to check erosion in their village, and some 500 odd people are feeling insecure.With floods likely to hit his village within the next few weeks, Raghumani is preparing to live on an elevated bamboo platform, called a chang, with his cattle.“Since there has been no solution to our main issue (erosion), our villagers are not politically active during elections,” Raghumani said.From lower Majuli, many families have migrated several miles away to middle Majuli and are taking shelter close to the riverbank. However, they are facing the same threat in middle Majuli as well.“Even after shifting to middle Majuli, houses of many families have been washed away by the Brahmaputra over the last three decades. RCC porcupines laid down by the govt have miserably failed in checking erosion. Our home was about 3 km away from the Brahmaputra when we came here in 1985. However, four villages that lie between No 1 Padumoni village, where we currently live, and the Brahmaputra have already washed away. Now the river is just a few metres away from us,” says 57-year-old farmer Sindhuram Saikia.“At a time when technology has taken humans to space, when will the govt be able to guard the banks of the river permanently with the use of modern technology? There is little enthusiasm for the elections among these villagers,” Sindhuram added.
