Anantanala causes erosion in Tala-Kordoiguri region in Doomdooma

A Correspondent

DOOMDOOMA: Anantanala which is actually Lohit river flowing directly on the way down from the mouth of the Dibong river south-westward because of hydrodynamical reason has caused heavy erosion in Talap-Kordoiguri region.

Asam Moran Sabha (AMS) in a statement to the press signed by its general secretary Durlav Gohain Moran has appealed to the government to take measures for protection of Dirak-Sumoni dyke which when breached in 1992 had caused extensive damage to the south bank of Sadiya Sub-division rendering agricultural lands of more than one hundred revenue villages uncultivable because of sand cover. Besides providing adequate relief to the people, the AMS has urged the government to open medical and veterinary camps.

The current wave of flood that has submerged 39 villages according to official report has rendered thousands of people homeless. The woes of the flood victims have been enhanced manifold because of the incidence of theft of domestic animals from their households. The villagers of Borgora( No.1 Hatishal) under Doomdooma Revenue Circle have lodged FIR with the police station against theft of 60 cows from their houses during flood.

Also the area has become a poachers’ paradise as it has been alleged that many poachers have taken advantage of flood to kill the wild animals inside Dibru-Saikhowa Forest Reserve.

The whole of the western side of Doomdooma Revenue Circle extending upto Dibru-Saikhowa Forest reserve on the south bank of the river Brahmaputra is highly vulnerable flood-prone area.

Although a dyke known as Saikhowa Protection Bandh Phase 1 is there, about 12 km stretch of it near Hatighuli on western side of Saikhowa (Dhola), was left undone because of objection raised by Social Forestry Department as it would have then passed through the Dibrugarh Saikhowa Forest Reserve.

The whole area became low lying after the great earthquake of 1950. So the sand and silt of flood water have rendered a vast expanse of land (around 1000 sq kilometres according to a conservative estimate) uncultivable. On the top of it, the creation of Anantanala over last three decades is threatening the very existence of Tinsukia, the headquarter town of Tinsukia district.

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