"River swallowed everything," say landless villagers displaced due to Assam flood, soil erosion - Punjabi News

Published on: 01 Jul 2023 at 06:55 PM

“River swallowed everything,” say landless villagers displaced due to Assam flood, soil erosion

Published by: thefactnews

Barpeta (Assam), July 1

Hundreds of families have been displaced due to floods and soil erosion caused by the Brahmaputra river in Assam’s Barpeta district.

The mighty Brahmputra river has swallowed hundreds of bighas of land, several houses, school building, religious institution of Satra Kanara area under Baghbar assembly constituency in Barpeta district in recent times.

Md. Afsar Ali, a resident of Satra Kanara 11 no sheet village built his house 16 years ago, but now he is busy along with his family members to demolish his own house and ready to move to safer place to reside.Md. Afsar Ali is doing this only because of soil erosion, caused by Brahmaputra river.

After swallowing hundreds bighas of land in past times, the river has now reached nearby his house.

“I am demolishing my house only because of the river. My earlier house was at Boroli area which was also swallowed by Brahmaputra river and is now doesn’t exist. I built this house (at Satra Kanara 11 No Sheet village) 16-17 years ago. Earlier the river was 400-600 meters away from here, but now it has reached nearby my house. Now we will move to Matabari area to reside on road along my family. Around 400-500 other families are now living on roads. The river has swallowed everything. I am daily wage labourer. I will have to build my house newly. If the government will help us, then it will be better for us to live,” Md. Afsar Ali said.

Not only Afsar Ali, many other families of Satra Kanara 11 no sheet, 10 no sheet are now ready to move the other places to live after the Brahmaputra river swallowed their lands, homes.

Jalaluddin Ahmed, a resident of Satra Kanara 10 No Sheet village said, “Earlier we had resided in Palarpaam village and that village is now submerged in river. In my life, we have demolished our house seven times only because of erosion. Every villager of this village has faced similar problem. We are totally helpless. I have nothing, everything has gone – my land, my house,” Jalaluddin Ahmed said.