TANGLA: The villagers of Paschim Nalbari (Kukurakata) village under Harisinga Revenue Circle near Tangla town of the Udalguri district have made a fervent appeal to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to save the village from rampant erosion by the Nonai River and adopt precautionary measures and boulder embankment to save the village. Sources said that due to unwarranted and unscientific sand mining in the Nonai River in the Udalguri district in the past, villagers of at least five villages in the Paschim Nalbari area are facing problems due to devastating river erosion for decades.
The villagers said that the Nonoi River has changed its course and is moving towards the people-inhabited areas. Villages are losing their land. “The river bed has turned unstable, thus disturbing the biodiversity of the region,” said Khagen Boro, whose two bighas of land, including his house, have been eroded by the river. The villagers’ plea for protection from erosion by building embankments was submitted after thorough enquiry by the Harisinga Revenue Circle Office to the Deputy Commissioner of Udalguri on June 8, 2015 vide memo no.HRC/DM-12/2015/1957. But for the last eight years, the State Government and Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) authorities have alleegdly largely ignored the plight of the villagers. The villagers alleged that neither any MLA, MP, Executive Member of BTC nor any civil administration official has visited them in the past two years or so.
“The impact of tampering with the rivers and their resources can be catastrophic. When sand and boulders are removed unabated, the erosion capacity of the river increases. Sand and boulders prevent the river from changing the course and act as a buffer for the riverbed,” said Govinda Debnath, a resident of Tangla town.
Sources added that unwarranted, unscientific and illegal mining of sand and stone metals is going on in the Nonai and Kulsi rivers of Udalguri district by vicious circles in connivance with officials of the Dhansiri Forest Division, Udalguri for long. As per norms, every mining operation should be done on the basis of an approved mining plan prepared through their authorized geologist and duly approved by the Director of Geology and Mining Assam under Rule 52 (1) of the Assam Minor Mineral Concession Rules 2013.
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