ISLAND MAJULI CRYING FOR HER RESTORATION
Majuli, the largest mid river deltaic Island in the world is one of the famous landscapes of Assam, Northeast India. It is situated on the upper reaches of the Brahmaputra River in Assam within the latitude of 26045’ N – 27012’ N & longitude of 93039’ E – 94035’ E with ranges of height of 84.5 to 95 m above the MSL and it covers an area of about 880 sq km. This landmass consists of 1.6 lakhs of population where majority of the people are being ethnic group of tribals. This Island is more important for the state of Assam and which makes the state proud. There are about 950 Sattras in the state of Assam where practices of Vaishnav Culture and its spiritualism have been performed throughout the state. Out of these Sattras, there are about 22 numbers of Sattras located in the Majuli alone which are playing a major role to preserve and to promote spirit of Vaishnavites. The island has a potentiality for a bio-diversity hotspot and has rich ecology with rare breeds of flora and fauna.
The biggest challenges faced by this part of Island are to conserve the heritage site with variable monuments and to protect river bank erosion caused by the spate of Brahmaputra and Subansiri River. The major concern of periodic river bank erosion taking place in a encircling pattern to Majuli Island which is not only a serious matter for the people of Assam but as well as to the Country also. Though many protection measures have been taken to prevent river bank erosions by the relevant organizations yet it needs more innovative measures using updated infrastructure and technology. This is important due to its huge characteristics of river systems of entire Dibang, Dihang,Luit and Subansiri basin. If the bank erosions continue, there is a maximum possibility for diminishing of practicing Vaishnavite at Majuli Island. Moreover, it may not have been possible to shift the heritage site to other parts of the State because of her typical climates, landscapes, monuments, cultural which are associated with only in the River Island, Majuli.
At present, river bank erosion is the biggest problem in the Assam in this present neo-tectonic age. The braided river is a type of nature of taking various courses and channels due to its carrying huge amount of sediments. River carries sediments from the upper reaches of catchments of large Himalayan zones. Large scale sedimentation is a common physical phenomenon in the Brahmaputra River system due to its position of world highest elevation zones and the behavior of physical and chemical properties of terrain rocks. The other factors like degradation of forests and socio economic conditions are also equally responsible for the deposition of sediments in the river bed. Therefore, the stable and non-stable islands in the Brahmaputra River are the innumerable numbers. The nature of Brahmpautra’s erosion takes place in one place and simultaneously new non stable or chars have been developed somewhere within the river. The problem of erosion is a major concern for the state from the point of degradation of land and habitation.
In the year 2008, Majuli and its adjacent areas was flooded for four successive times within the june to September 08 where it had affected about 135 villages consisting of 1.37 lakhs of people. Around 530 sq kms of area was submerged Out of 880 sq kms of land there are about 530 sq kms land was submerged because of high flood during the August ,2008. It can be easily imagined how Majuli has been crying for protection of flood and from the severe erosion. Erosion in the upper Assam’s Brahmaputra Valley is a major concern for the state which has many causes. The Brahmaputra’s length is about 2880 kms from the Kanglung Kung glacier at 5300 meter altitude located in the southwestern part of Tibetan Plateau of China to Bay of Bengal. At Majuli there is an average altitude of 85m at a distance of 1100 kms from the source of origin of Tsangpo (Brahmaputra in Assam). Such an abrupt gradient of Altitude is also one of the major factors of bank erosion . As a result rate of weathering and erosion in the upper catchment area of Tibetan, Arunachal Pradesh is also high with the other factors like degradation of vegetation and nature of rocks associated with the eastern Himalayan region. The Brahmaputra’s Catchment area of about 5,80,000 sq.km falls in the four countries in percentage i.e. Tibetan Plateau of China (50.52%), India( 33.62%), Bhutan (7.76%) and Bangladesh (8.10%). A total of 52 numbers of tributaries feed the Brahmaputra in the downstream side making it viable water resources in the region. Of these, the major 19 tributaries lie in the north bank while 12 others are in the south bank of the mighty river. It is worth mentioning that Dihang (Siang), i.e. Tsangpo in the upper reaches and Subansiri contributes 37.40% and 10.66% surface run off to the Brahmaputra respectively. Moreover, the other two important tributories like Dibang (Sikang) and Lohit contibutes around 7.65% and 9.50% surface runoff to the mighty river. Thus, around 65 percent of water contributes to the Basin of mighty river flows from these four tributaries only where heritage land Majuli has to take the load of around 70% of Brahmaputra water through it. From the observation of satellite imagery it may be assumed shifting of various rivers like Subansiri, Dayang, BurhiDihing etc have been taken place. Mostly Subansiri and its tributaries have changed their course rapidly in the Dhemaji and Lakhimpur District that is north of Majuli . The river lineament of Dayang and Subansiri are playing major role in the Majuli’s neotectonic set up where both the river meet the Brahmaputra at a convex point toward Dayangmukh of around 45% degree from the opposite direction. The triburories like Subansiri and Dayang has been shifted toward western direction.
From the imagery, it has been seen that three main active channels at Majuli Island and others innumerable numbers of dry channels have been observed during the pre monsoon seasons. This dry channels get rejuvenated with water during the high flood time .Hundreds and hundreds numbers of different size of channels are lying in dry position and fresh erosion takes place in all the sides. This channel remains dry in the pre monsoon period and somewhere deposited char inside the Majuli and again started to erode in the bank of Brahmaputra in all sides and corners of the Majuli. This is the major problem for the protection of river borne Islands.
In the recent trend, option of river management has become more important task as concern to the harnessing of water resources for the purposes of irrigation, fisheries, drinking water and for multipurpose hydro power generation. It is true that despite having great potentiality of water, till now, here in the Northeast India is always lacking in harness of water than the other parts of the Country. Of course, Brahmaputra is an international river and it needs more innovative measures from the Centre’s in association with the State Organization. Moreover, transferring of hydrological data and using of recent hydrological tools are the other prime options that have to be considered in the process of river managements. For this India has to derive recent hydrology data from the neighbor China. Mutual understanding and agreement between the Countries should have been made for fruitful planning of Brahmaputra River (Tsangpo in China) for carrying out the better river management in the downstream course. Because without managing Tsangpo there is little hope to save the Majuli from river bank erosion. There is need more favorable modeling and planning which will have to find out by the concern agencies for protection of Majuli Island. Though impact of global warming phenomena will affect the river island Majuli but there must have scientifically effective plan to save the Majuli from river erosion and its degradation of land. The concerned relevant organizations may carry out the study with the help of Remote Sensing & GIS technology to find out future favorable Master Plan for Majuli Island including concept of floating villages. There is a tremendous scope to beautify the Island and to make excellent biodiversity with setting up an eco-tourism spot to attract the whole world. The days have to come when isolated Island would be a dream land for the people of this earth no matter it would achieve the world heritage site or not.