Erosion Havoc of the Brahmaputra

The Brahmaputra which is flowing East to West through the plains of Assam is one of the mightiest rivers of the world. Meandering through the plains it creats innumerable 'Chars' perticularly in its lower part in the district of Kamrup, Nalbari, Barpeta,Bongaigaon, Goalpara and Dhubri. There are a large no.'Chars'of while most of them are temporary, some are permanent also. These are the abode of the Muslims peasants who struggle persistently with the fury of nature. At the same time they have also to constantly face the problem of large-scale erosion of the Brahmaputra. Erosion usually takes place when water of the Brahmaputra recedes during the month of Octobor andNovember. The fury of the Brahaputra particularly when it erodes its bank can not be understood well if one does not see it personally. Erosion washes away mercilessly standing crops, houses, valuable trees and sometime domestic live stock like cows, buffalos, goats, sheeps etc. The ersion havoc of the Brahmaputra has become more devastating in scale perticularly after the great earthquake of 1950. A part of Dibrugarh town(Assam) was washed away in 1950 by erosion . In 1954, Palashbari a commercial place of Assam was completely washed away. Between 1950-1964, part of Goalpara town was sub-merged in the Brahmaputra due to erosion. Similarly erosion effected Dhubri town also. But the scale of devastation was much more in the rural areas than in the town areas because in case of the latter some measures are taken by the Govt. to control erosion. However no such measure is taken in the case of village. The data computed during the period 1964 and 1969, revealed that on an average 253 villages and 8091 hectares of farmland are being washed away by the Brahmaputra. After independence, erosion completely washed way several thousand villages of the Brahmaputra banks from 'Sadia to Sukchar'. The majuli the largest river island of the world is severaly affected by erosion. Between 1950 and 1988 a large no. of villages of Kamrup, Nalbari and Barpeta district were under erosion. Barpeta is one of the worst affected districts of Assam by erosion. Although official reports are not available, it has been unofficially assesed that from Hajo to Moinbori in the district of barpeta 150 villages have been completely washed away and many villages were partially washed away. In the district Barpeta the area from the villege Chanpur, Kalampur, Sonapur, Alipur, Rosulpur, Roumari, Chenimari, Chenglidia, Balidhari and many villages are completely under Brahmaputra Now. In 1959, the Tarabari market was completely by erosion. The villages to the west and south of Tarabari were completely washed away. The no. affected people would be not less than 2 lakhs.