Assam: Gohpur villagers in Biswanath district prepare for monsoon season

BISWANATH CHARIALI: As the monsoon season is approaching with heavy rainfall and subsequent floods, the people in a village in Gohpur sub-division in Biswanath district are getting ready with full preparedness for the season. According to information, a number of villages including Kawoimari, Gangadoloni etc under the Bakoridoloni Gaon Panchayat located on the banks of the mighty Brahmaputra in the sub-division have been facing the fury of severe floods during the monsoon season for several years. During that period, the affected people are forced to spend several days on home-made country boats and their daily life became boat-centric. Therefore, a section of villagers is seen these days busy in making wooden country boats in the Bakoridoloni Gaon Panchayat area.

“We have to do everything, from cooking our food to sheltering our cattle, from travelling to shopping etc, on the boats. The boats have become our temporary home during the floods which occur three or four times every year,” the villagers informed media persons. The boats are even used to transport serious conditioned patients to nearby safe places for treatment. “It has become our way of leaving. Though we have to face a lot of difficulties, yet we have no other means to escape the fury of the flood,” the villagers added. The administration takes necessary action to provide shelter and food to the flood-affected people, but that is not sufficient, the villagers opined.

The country boats are made of ejar (lagerstroemia speciosa) trees. Normally, it costs from forty-five thousand to fifty thousand rupees. It also requires lot of hard work. A boat takes nearly a month to be completed.

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