For 80-year-old Ziad Ali erosion and displacement have been a mental trauma. The octogenarian has been displaced at least 12 times as Beki river’s destructive current has eroded Rasulpur village in Barpeta district almost every flood season “, especially since 2004”.
“I have spent my life battling erosions and subsequent hunting for land to set up a house. I have spent my life in this struggle and till now I had a way to find refuge in the village. But there will be nothing left in the village for the future generation”, Ali said, explaining the extent of erosion affecting the village.
A distant village, around 105 km towards the west from Guwahati, Rasulpur was heaven for traditional cultivation of paddy, jute, blackgram, peanuts as well as perishable vegetables such as brinjal, cauliflower, cabbage, okra, etc. with its vast expanse. But over the years the village shrunk to “a proportion from where it will vanish from the map”.
Rasulpur used to be a “big village with more than 8000 bighas of land fertile for cultivation but now merely 50 bighas (16.5 acres) of land remain here”, Nurul Islam reckoned to what Ziad was fearing.
67-year-old Islam, a resourceful person in the area lamented, “Once people from our village were self-sustaining. But with all the land gone into the river, our younger generation is becoming migrant labourers in other states as there is no hope left here.” (1 acre= 3.025 bighas)
The elders were deeply saddened by the fact that with the village evanescing in front of their eyes, “no physical forms of our struggles and communal rejoicing moments that we had while harvesting, celebrating festivities or collaboration in ceremonies will be left” as Nurul pointed to the harmonious past days. He thinks his village’s destruction is inevitable as no politician or official had visited the village during this year’s erosion reflecting “their indifference” to the issue.
“If no one comes to take the measure of the situation, how can a scheme be implemented to protect the village?” he questioned.
The latest erosion of Rasulpur village by Beki River’s torrent started in May this year and has been continuing as locals gathered at Kadong Bazar told Maktoob. Kadong Bazar used to be far away from Rasulpur but due to the continuous erosion, the gap between the market and the char narrowed down to only around 500 metres.
In the latest wave of erosion, around 40 households were washed away at the village where a total of 102 families were residing according to Population Census 2011.
At present, some of the eroded families have taken shelter near the roadside and some have dispersed to other areas in temporary settlements.
“All the families residing in this village are farmers and had their own land to cultivate. But with the land gone, we have little option here because when the fertile land is eroded only sandbars emerge, that too very less. Where we cannot grow any crops”, said 60-year-old veteran farmer Siddique Ali.
Siddique’s house has been eroded many times like other people dwelling in the riverine areas of Assam.
Apart from losing the only livelihood option of cultivation, the families are also in distress as there is no land left for dispersed to build a house. “Earlier when erosion caused displacement, people who had some land away from the river offered fellow villagers to build a house and restart their life. Now almost the entire village is going down, so there is no land to offer. Where do we build a house now?”, asked 45-year-old Bahar Uddin.
Erosion by Beki
The Beki river basin, streamed by the Himalayan glaciers from Bhutan, originates from Mathanguri in Manas reserve forest and flows in Assam through Chirang and Barpeta districts (north-western districts of Assam) before merging with the Brahmaputra near Balajan area of the later district.
Flowing 85 km from Bhutan and draining around 26,243 square kilometres, Beki River causes the high magnitude of flood and erosion, usually due to heavy rainfall in the upper reaches of the Himalayas and sometimes due to the release of excess water from Kurissu dam in Bhutan.
According to a detailed project report by the Water Resource Department of Assam, massive floods and erosions devastated the district in 2004, 2007, 2009, 2015 and 2016 making hundreds of families internally displaced peoples. Since then the department has prepared a project worth more than Rs 400 crore to contain the erosion of Beki River as Assam government’s data tabled in the assembly.
Imran Hussain, who hails from nearby Rupakuchi village and has been documenting river erosion in the area said, “The extensive erosions have caused dispossession for the families living in the area. Apart from Beki, people living in nearby areas of Chaulkhowa River’s reaches are also suffering. The entire stretch of land along the two rivers may see erosion as in the case of my own house. It was very far from our home, now the Chaulkhowa river is just about 150 metres away from my home.”
Corroborating the fears of becoming homeless and landless, Nur Mohammad from Rasulpur village says, “If we become landless due to the erosion, there is no one to help. We do not get erosion-affected certificates as neither the lot mandal (local land enumerator) does not come here and carries out any registration. We never get any compensation from the government.”
In order to rehabilitate the erosion-affected homeless and landless people in Assam, the state government in its special scheme in 2021 to provide rehabilitation to erosion-affected families set up a mechanism for providing the relief measures in monetary value. It mentions that the erosion-affected families need to submit an application to the concerned circle officer for verification and the circle officer would verify the application from land records as well as through field verification by Lot Mandal.
However, due to illiteracy and unawareness, the villagers from the Barpeta district obtained neither an erosion-affected person certificate nor a rehabilitation package.
Commenting on the importance of such rehabilitation schemes and erosion-affected person certificates, Gauhati High Court advocate Jahir Abbas said, “These are very important documents and benefits for the erosion-affected families, especially for char dwellers. Erosion certificates or government benefits provide a legal document for the people who are to be labelled as illegal immigrants or illegal encroachers. In both situations, the documents can prove their previous habitat and fend off the tags of illegal settlers or Bangladeshi migrants”.
