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Recurring floods leave a trail of misery in Dhakuakhana

Mrinal Talukdar in Dhakuakhana

Death, destruction, famine and starvation stalk Dhakuakhana in the remote north-eastern corner of Assam where recurring floods leave a trail of misery.

Yet even by these standards, the recent floods were unprecedented burying the fertile land under three to five feet of sand. As a result no vegetation survives and the area has virtually turned into a desert.

A visiting UNI correspondent found women shivering on the embankment of Matmari, with tattered clothes barely covering their bodies. They have been surviving on dried fish and roots as no vegetation above the ground had withstood the fury of the surging waters.

Assam assembly Speaker Ganesh Kutum, Asom Gana Parishad MLA Dilip Saikia and Congress MLA Bharat Chandra Narah are unanimous that the situation is nothing less than a catastrophe. ''You will not believe the destruction and hardship our people have been facing,'' says Kutum. His constituency, Gahpur, is one of the worst-affected.

''Today, Mishing (tribal) women do not even have something to cover themselves with. One has to see to believe it,'' says Dimbeshwar Miri, who had gone along with an non-governmental organisation of Lakhimpur to distribute aid to those camping on the Matmari embankment.

Officials of the Dhemaji district administration in which Dhakuakhana falls, concur and admit that the relief measures are beyond their means and they have no other way to help these unfortunate people whose numbers run into thousands.

At one point, the Dhemaji district administration had to promulgate prohibitory orders under Section 144 to prevent the people from eating fish that had turned rotten. Many had perished after consuming the fish.

Due to the sand deposited by the flood waters, no crop can be sown for the next one and a half decades, says Jnageswar Patir, a farmer with more than 40 bighas of cultivated land.

Tears rolls down his cheeks while he points in the direction of what used to be his paddy field. Now it is nothing but a sea of sand.

Overcome with hunger pangs, the women folk try to locate the bharalghar (paddy storage room) buried under four feet of sand. The few lucky ones find it but most remain unsuccessful. But even those who manage to salvage the grain find it rotten. However, even the rotten rice is welcome in Matmari, Madarguri, Bakulguri, Santipur and scores of other villages.

More than 600 people have died of malnutrition, lack of medical treatment and starvation in the past three months. The only medical centre in the area is the Dhakuakhana primary health centre. But reaching there is a daunting prospect as it involves an arduous trek of 30 kilometre from Matmari in the absence of roads on which any vehicle other than the handcarts for the sick can pass.

The district administration has been reduced to a helpless spectator. Beyond Gohpur, no roads exist for Dhemaji and Dhakuakhana. Although the district administration is taking measures for maintaining the supply of essentials no one has the money to buy anything.

No sooner do these people recover from the calamity, the next spell of destruction through floods begins within the gap of a few months. Nobody dares to construct a permanent house here as no one is sure about how safe it would be in withstanding the deluge.

Assistance from some NGOs is trickling in but proves to be a drop in the ocean of misery as successive waves of floods coupled with sand deposits have virtually turned the region into a desert.

''Today it is like Rajasthan. Miles and miles of only white sand where you cannot produce anything,'' says Saikia, the MLA from Dhemaji.

Those having entrepreneur skills have travelled all the way to Guwahati to sell the traditional Miri and Mishing clothes. ''There is good demand but the costs are high. We cannot reduce it also because many of us are dependent on it. The stuff is entirely hand made,'' says Chandan Miri, who is selling the cloth in Guwahati.

Narah had released Rs 2 million from his MLAs' area development fund while his wife Rani Narah, MP of Lakhimpur, provided another Rs 1 milion for some relief work. But these are too meagre considering the magnitude of the problem.

There are hardly four months to go before the first wave of floods hits Dhemaji distrcit once again. For those who survive, yet another bout with the unrelenting hostile forces of nature begins.

UNI

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