The word Modi failed to keep: Majuli, world’s largest river island on the verge of extinction
Bhupen Goswami
GUWAHATI : The beauty of the North-East is the finest confluence of folk art and culture, Majuli, the world’s largest river island. It is the first island in the country to be declared a district. Majuli is an anonymous island spread over an area of 875 square kilometers in the middle of the Brahmaputra River. However, this beautiful island of Assam has been in the limelight for some time now.
On 1 September 2016, Majuli made it to the Guinness Book of World Records. It was declared the world’s largest river island.Majuli island is not just identified as a tourist attraction. It is more than this. Majuli’s identity is also the constituency of Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. From here the people have elected him and sent him to the assembly. It is understood that the Chief Minister regularly visits the island and how vigilant and attentive it is for the development work related to it.
While declaring Majuli as a separate district, he said- “Majuli is a treasure of possibilities and capabilities.By making it a district, many developmental works will be given impetus. The beauty and natural beauty of Majuli Island is unmatched. The cultural treasure is amazing. For this reason, this place is now in the list of possible World Heritage sites of UNESCO. Despite all the achievements, the island is facing a terrible crisis. Not only Assam but the Central Government also needs to be aware of the flooding of the Brahmaputra River and the erosion of the banks due to it. But this fact is far from the news. Media attention has not gone towards this serious erosion. Every year many people die due to floods.
Thousands of crores of rupees of property are ruined due to drowning. Even after this, the biggest challenge is in the form of erosion. The island was 1256 square kilometers in the 1990s. By 2014 one-third of it flowed with the Brahmaputra. Its erosion is still happening fast. The Geological Survey of India has given a terrible sign of disappearance in the Majuli Brahmaputra River.According to the Geological Survey report, if the central government takes no action at the appropriate time, within the next 10 years, Majuli will disappear into the Brahmaputra River.
According to a report by the Geological Survey of India Department, about 22,000 families of the island have lost their homes. He had to be removed from there for rehabilitation. A senior official of the Department of Geological Survey of India has said that the central government has sanctioned 250 crore rupees to save the island.But the work they are doing to preserve it is struggling to prevent the island from disappearing. At no stage did he have any success.
Majuli is an island connected by the vast Brahmaputra River. Here a branch of the Brahmaputra originates as Kherkutia Thoti and joins a small river Subansiri. The island is located 2.5 km from the river bank and is 300 kilometers away from Guwahati, Assam’s largest and most populous city.According to Earth and Science India report on water related issues, about 108 revenue villages of Majuli have been swept away due to large scale erosion. The government has made several efforts to control erosion by raising embankments and installing geo-bags and porpines. But these measures have not proved to be effective as expected. Experts have warned that this Majuli island could disappear completely by 2040 as more violent floods ravaged the lives of people living along the river.
Climate change means that the annual monsoon catastrophe is at its peak. Human mismanagement is exacerbating the problem and the future looks bleak for Majuli’s 170,000 islands. The waterfall is submerging more and more areas of Majuli Island and, for long periods, uprooting crops and making the land infertile. Locals also claim that the erosion of the embankments has worsened as they disrupt the flow of the river.”Today, the flood has become a curse. Instead of fertile silt, floods now bring soil-destroying sand. Whatever efforts the Brahmaputra Board has made in Majuli have done more erosion than controlling it. A survey by Assam Chief Minister Sonowal promised that a bridge connecting Jorhat Island would be built if he became the Chief Minister.
Currently, the island is accessible only by ferry and the construction of the bridge is a long-standing demand of its residents. Sonowal also promised to preserve and promote Majuli’s cultural wealth. He said before the election that preserving Majuli Island itself would also be a priority for the government. During his speech in Majuli, Prime Minister Modi blamed the previous state governments for thwarting the erosion of the island.The Sonowal-led government hoped to find new ways to save Majuli from being lost to the Brahmaputra by floods. Now the locals are waiting for the upcoming assembly elections and they have been seen in the situation that the Sonowal rulers will not do anything under the leadership of BJP. Majuli and Upper Assam locals alleged that Prime Minister Modi has failed to deliver on his promises,About 5 years ago, the Prime Minister had shown sweet dreams to the people of Assam and Majuli, now it has been proved that all these promises were untrue.
The Assam government led by Prime Minister Modi and Sarbananda Sonowal BJP has completely failed to fulfill the promises made to mislead the public. Continuous flooding and erosion have reduced the Majuli River Island in Assam, the largest island in the world, to less than half its original size. Even others that remain up to 400 square kilometers may drown in 20 or 30 years.Surrounded by lush fields and lush forests, this beautiful river island is the prize of Assam. It boasts a remarkable mix of communities and diverse cultures, including traditions of neo-Vaishnavism and mask-making traditions. It is very sad to say the Central Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given assurances many times in for the conservation of the island, but so far nothing is being done.On the other hand, it is important to mention here that the Brahmaputra is the largest single Purus river in the world. It flows through Tibet, India and Bangladesh.
The Brahmaputra originates near the Mansarovar Lake in the Purang district of Tibet, north of the Himalayas. Where it is called Yerlung Tsangpo. Flowing into Tibet, this river enters the state of Arunachal Pradesh in India. It is called the Brahmaputra flowing in the Assam Valley and then the Jamuna when it enters Bangladesh.After the confluence with Padma (Ganga), their combined stream is called Meghna, which joins the Bay of Bengal forming the Sundarban Delta. The Brahmaputra River is a very long (2900 km) river. The name of Brahmaputra is Sampo in Tibet, Diham in Arunachal and Brahmaputra in Assam. The Brahmaputra River joins the Bay of Bengal in the Bangladesh border with the Padma, the original branch of the Ganges flowing south by the name of Jamuna.Suvanashree, Teesta, Torsa, Lohit, Barak etc. are the tributaries of Brahmaputra. The cities along the banks of the Brahmaputra are Dibrugarh, Tezpur and Guwahati
