Erosion: 2,500 villages already wiped out; 4 lakh people displaced over the years

Erosion posing serious threat

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Besides floods, erosion by rivers in Assam is fast turning out to be quite serious with thousands of people rendered homeless every year. However, the fact remains that the State government has not yet been able to evolve a permanent solution to the growing problem of erosion. All its stress is on solving the flood problem, though. This may be because the Government of India has included floods in its 'Disaster Management' schemes leaving out erosion totally.

According to official sources, river erosion has already wiped out approximately 2,500 villages displacing around four lakh people across the State over the years. A large section of such displaced people is still dwelling on embankments for several years now. Around 8,000 hectares of land are eroded by rivers across the State every year.

Oddly enough, while the flood-affected people get reliefs of various kinds, the erosion-affected people don't get any. The only succour for them is the compensation they get when their houses are damaged by erosion; but that too, only if those houses had been set up on their own patta land.

The State government has identified 25 vulnerable erosion-affected sites including Rohomoria, Palasbari, Matmora, Majuli, Kareng Chapori, Lahorighat, Baghbor among others. Though anti-erosion schemes have been taken up at some of these vulnerable sites, these are not enough to solve the problem of erosion.

A retired engineer of the State Water Resources department doing research on rivers said, "Erosion by rivers in Assam is no less serious than the floods. And erosion takes place round the year; and not just in monsoon. This apart, the rivers of Assam behave quite differently from their counterparts in the other parts of India. The soil in Assam is soft, and that leads to more erosion by rivers. The Government of India has failed to gauze this reality as this aspect of the rivers is not noticed elsewhere in the country.

"From the very beginning, the department's thrust has been on flood control, not on tackling erosion. The Government of India doesn't pump in funds to the State for controlling erosion. In such a situation, checking erosion by rivers in the State is not an easy task."

A source in the Revenue and Disaster Management department said, "The SDRF (State Disaster Response Fund) is meant for only the flood-affected people, not for the erosion-affected ones; except when erosion damages their houses. A large number of people get displaced every year due to erosion. It is a very difficult task to resettle them. The displaced people settle down wherever they can."   

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