Displaced Multiple Times and Losses Never Compensated: The Plight of Flood Victims of Assam's Bonkowal

Sei Nodi Nirobodhi (The River Unstoppable) is an ageless Assamese novel, written in the 1960s by the literary doyen Nirupama Borgahain. River Pagladia, the backdrop of the novel, still flows endlessly, sometimes calm and sometimes raging. The novel’s depiction of the wrath of Pagladia washing away the village and the lives are engraved in the memories of readers. More than 60 years have passed since Sei Nodi Nirobodhi was written, but writing about Assam’s flood remains nearly the same – swelled rivers guzzling homes and hearths, paddies and livestock, resulting in countless losses that are never compensated.

The year 2024 is no exception, over 24 lakh people have been affected within a week and about 70,000 hectares of cropland were damaged during the same period. Sufferings of those lakhs will continue for months to come, with compensations grossly insufficient, in fact, many will remain totally out of the ambit of compensation.

In some places, people pack their stuff in April-May, when rains start, and ready themselves to go to relief camps when the river comes to their homes, they spend days at the camps and return homes empty-handed which can be twice or even thrice in a year. The rice production goes down, and in some cases, the silt-filled lands become uncultivable for years. There are histories, where silt-filled lands barred a generation from rice cultivation, forcing daily wagers, and migration out of state. Prosperity remains dreary for these people who are plunged into an unwanted embrace of the recurring scenario every year, for many years.

Writing about Assam’s flood is writing about the suffering of people and in any year, one can get the in-hand account from only a few spots, as it is nearly impossible to visit all the inundated places across the length and breadth of the state. However, the stories from the ground share striking similarities – breaching of embankments, water level gusting to several feet in no time, providing imperceptible time for the people to save their belongings, the stories that continue since Nirupama Borgohain wrote her novel.

Also read: Assam Floods: Over 24 Lakh People Affected, Death Toll Reaches 70

Bonkowal: Excruciating memories of the past brought back in 2024

With the visit of the chief minister and three other cabinet ministers, Bonkowal has garnered a lot of attention this year. All of them visited the spot where a huge embankment had been breached by the water from the Brahmaputra on July 2 morning, as the locals said.

On July 13, when The Wire reached the spot, it found education minister Ranoj Pegu there. Notably, Pegu’s rise to parliamentary politics can be traced to Bonkowal as an important point, the area is dominated by the Misings and comes under the Mising Autonomous Council (MAC).

Narrating the harrowing experience, Bhabal Daw, an elderly resident of Bonkowal told The Wire: “It was like a water bomb blasted in the morning around 8 am. The water was rolling as if it was a sea and the embankment breached with a massive sound. Within less than an hour, the water level rose to several feet washing away the granaries, harming livestock. People could save themselves somehow by rushing to the high portion of the embankment.”

Embankments are meant to safeguard places from floods, but in a situation of voluminous water putting huge pressure on one side, they breach and the water current becomes torrential causing extraordinary damages. The protagonist Dipu of Sei Nodi Nirobodhi had to witness the death of his lover Lakshmi’s son in the flood when the embankment built under his supervision was breached. This is the story almost every year in Assam, sometimes here and sometimes there.

Bhabal Daw has four bighas of cropland damaged due to this flood and his three cows washed away, as he told The Wire. Since the breaching and inundation on July 2 (according to the locals) till July 13 when The Wire visited the place, Daw had not received a penny as compensation, not even Rs 3,800 as an immediate relief, let alone anything for his paddies and livestock. This happened when CM Himanta Biswa Sarma visited the place 11 days back and so as water resource minister Pijush Hazarika, agriculture minister Atul Bora and Bokakhat MLA (local MLA).

Daw’s story is repeated by Bogoli Loying who lost three of his cows as well as paddies from the granary and so as others. Biswa Loying had his house gorged by the hungry currents of water flushing from the breached embankment. Yet, he has not received the meagre Rs 3,800 for as many as 11 days after the incident took place.

No member of their families receives Rs 1,250 a month under the Arunodoi scheme, a flagship programme of the Assam government and a much-hyped one. They, however, receive free rice of 5 Kgs per head per month.

Again in Nam Temera village, as Ivan Loying told The Wire, the Bonkowal breaching affected badly this time. When the writer visited Nam Temera accompanied by local journalists, Uttam Sarma and Pallav Hazarika, the entire stretch of the village on both sides of the main road was filled with filthy smells due to stagnant flood water for the day.

“There is a huge crisis of drinking water here as all the tube wells are submerged and there is no relief from the administration. My family is surviving on bottled water for 10 days now. There will be outbreaks of diarrhoea, typhoid and encephalitis shortly and we don’t see any health measure taken,” Ivan said adding that the breaching at Bonkowal has submerged the croplands this time, which otherwise is not that much affected as the Brahmaputra flood entered the village slowly through Naromari channel.

The futility of the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) was felt to the core by the residents who consider it a waste of resources in a water-rich state like Assam.

Floody history of Bonkowal

Bonkowal is the region bearing witness to historical sufferings due to floods, since the 1960s. Thousands have been displaced several times in their lifetime with the disappearance of scores of villages into the raging water of Brahmaputra, the braided river that changes its course unpredictably.

In fact, the embankment that breached this time was newly built with the previous ones eroded by Brahmaputra and vanished over time. The old Bonkowal area was at least 7-8 kilometers away (northward) from the current embankment and as the river started flowing further south, the villages and embankments vanished, which makes one imagine how people kept on displacing with the river.

Manik Daw, an elderly witness of Bonkowal’s tearful history, who has written a few books on it spoke to The Wire about experiences of his lifetime. “I was 10-11 years old when the unprecedented massive flood in 1962 devastated Bonkowal – our livestock and paddies in the granaries were washed away and the area remained submerged for around two months. It was the beginning of flood devastation, as prior to that our villages had flooded for only two-three days and people cherished it,” Daw said, remembering how people had to leave their place and move further south of Brahmaputra.

Notably, the first embankment to be reached old Bonkowal (remnants after the 1962 flood) was built in 1962-64, which is the Nagheriting-Bonkowal connecting one (several kilometers long), in the time of Jawaharlal Nehru. “But the embankment did not reach Bonkowal till 1980 and the people had to bear the brunt of devastating floods every 10 years. In fact, the incomplete embankment cursed Bonkowal more as the river water came rushing with more pressure after hitting the incomplete embankment a few kilometres away,” Daw continued.

However, in the 1980s the embankment reached Bonkowal, but by that time the Brahmaputra started flowing further southward and in 1988 had a massive flood once again. Since then massive erosions destructed the embankment that got vanished till 2004 putting the village and the newly settled people in renewed danger.

It was during the time of Jiten Gogoi, an independent MLA from Bokakhat, that the current embankment was constructed, which was mainly an agricultural dam (krishi bandh) to protect the cropland.

Speaking to Jiten Gogoi The Wire came to know that the embankment cum dam was constructed somewhere during 2004 and it stretched upper Bonkowal to Alengmari. “We cut a channel from Dhansiri river and merged it with Gelabil a few kilometers downstream of the spot where the dam was breached this year. This effort becomes successful, while the previous attempts went in vain,” Gogoi told The Wire emphasising that the embankments are highly vulnerable and they need strict maintenance every year. “There was gross apathy in maintenance of the embankments,” he said.

Flood, land conflict, plight of Indigenous, ‘Mission Basundhara’ and Kaziranga’s expansion

Let alone the never-compensated saga of flood chased people, there are indigenous communities in Assam who had faced land conflicts due to flood – they lost their land and homes into the river and were displaced, governments give them land possession which mainly remains devoid of ‘Myadi Patta’ (legal permanent land holding).

Prabin Pegu, a spokesperson of Jeepal Krishak Shramik Sangha, narrated his family’s and fellow villagers’ story to The Wire, “Our present villages Balijan Adarsha Mising Gaon No. 1 and No. 2 comprise of the settlers from old Bholukaguri, Balijan areas since 1977. Those old villages went into Brahmaputra in flood and erosion and erstwhile CM Sarat Singha settled our ancestors here providing 1 bigha of land for each family, but without Myadi Pattas. About 77 families settled here in 1977 and eventually, it has grown to nearly 1000.” These villages are a few kilometers away from Bokakhat, the adjoining township of Kaziranga National Park (KNP).

“But in the recent ‘Mission Basundhara’ (government of Assam scheme claimed to provide land holding to those eligible), only 17/18 families have managed to get the patta while rest are clueless. We are no foreigners and our ancestors have witnessed the plight due to natural disasters and if the present CM says we don’t have rights over land then what will the people do? Someday the administration will paint us as illegal possessors of govt land and evict us,” Pegu sighed.

Pegu’s narration is obviously not confined to his village alone, there will be several hundreds of such examples of plight and land conflict across Assam. How can we forget the eviction in Amsang near Guwahati city in 2017 when Sarbananda Sonowal was the CM? Many of the evictees were Misings that settled with paying tax after getting displaced from Dhemaji due to flood.

Notably, as Pegu told, the lost lands reappeared and people went there to grow paddy after as many as 30 years with obvious conflicts with wild animals. “It took many decades to get cropland fertile again after it gets silt-filled due to floods. In recent years, the KNP authority has created some camps of forest guards in those areas and they say that these have now become part of the Eastern Range of KNP. This never happened, those remote places were inhabited by the Misings,” he added.

Also read: As Assam Reels Under Floods, Political Sparring Takes Centre Stage

Highlighting the initiatives of Jeepal Krishak Shramik Sangha, Pegu said, “Jeepal has been with the toiling people from the beginning. We have put the relief manual of the government in all the places and are fighting for the rights of the people. The relief manual was never public, after a great deal of struggle we got the govt manual and made it public. Instead of taking eyewash measures of distributing few relief materials, we stand with the people day and night, in all their needs.”

Nikori Bortol Platform: The legacy of displacement and suffering

The photo above is of an incomplete structure, a sort of community hall (Natya Mandir) with its backyard flooded when The Wire reached. The foundation stone reads that it was inaugurated by Atul Bora, a local MLA and a cabinet minister. Here people and cattle co-exist. The people at this platform (a highland) are from Bonkowal chased by the ravaging flood and for the past 24 years, they have lived from hand to mouth, as all of their resources went into the river. “Moreover, we face the threat of eviction regularly. We have no land to farm and no stable means of livelihood. Where will we go if evicted,” said one octogenarian living there, a witness to the history of displacement and suffering.

Nikori Bortol Platform’s history makes one remember Palash Loying’s drama ‘Dalimi, Mora Suti Jiya Noi’ (translates into English as Dalimi; a dead channel but a lively river) depicting the extraordinary struggle taken by Dalimi Loying, a woman of Bonkowal, for the rights of her people. She was a living legend and a symbol of struggle.

Is apathy in maintenance apparent?

The Wire also reached the embankment at Gulung Temera, which Manik Daw mentioned as incomplete to reach Bonkowal till 1980 and was built in the 1960s. Locals like Jogesh Pathari, Pradip Bori and Koliya Pathari told the writer about their fear of the embankment breaching in their village as well.

In Assam, the possibility of flood during Bhado (September) always looms large due to the reverse monsoon rains. “We fear that if the ‘bhodiya ban (floods of Bhado) comes this year our village will suffer extremely badly. Because the embankment is unmaintained and it has seepage beneath. We found it this time and in fact villagers mended it temporarily and we saved our village. But in case of the late flood, it will be breached,” said Koliya Pathari to The Wire continuing – “the departmental (PWD) effort of maintaining it is always negligible. Our local MLA and minister Atul Bora also visited the place and we showed him the conditions. We don’t know what steps will be taken shortly.”

The locals also mentioned the problem they faced this time due to a large pond with tall banks constructed under the ‘Amrit Sarovar’ project. The seeping water that came beneath the embankment got stuck on one side and was swelling as it could not move further due to the pond. They finally reduced the banks of the Amrit Sarovar to make water move freely.

Losses never compensated

Embracing the inhuman conditions becomes the only option for people if they don’t want to die, especially in floods that occur every year in some part or the other in Assam, even after half a century post-independence. Loss of every possession could never be compensated, let alone the relief.

In the relief camps, as the inmates told The Wire they were provided a few kilos of rice, a few grams of dal and oil per head twice a week. Medical teams rarely visit the camps and the SDRF/NDRF emergency boats are scanty, though they stand with the people. For their cattle, there is always a deficient supply.

Recently, as the locals said, Atul Bora visited the area where one mobile veterinary van was present. When he went the van also vanished and did not appear again till the time The Wire visited. Moreover, bureaucratic red-tapism further complicates. Monika Daw, a resident of Oijanpar Mirika Miri Path, which is devastated this year after the breach at Bonkowal, narrating her pain told The Wire, “Without proper data, there will be no compensation. When we told the administration that several cows and buffaloes were washed away from the chapori (sand bar), they asked for photographic proof or insurance. How can we provide the photographs of the cattle washed away in the flood? Many of us continue with the traditional way of cattle herding without insurance. We also submitted paper signed by witnesses to the Gaonburha (village head), but this also went in vain.”

The same case happens when people are asked to provide the documents of their lost lands when both the papers and the lands are taken away by flood.

Witnesses of this history find it difficult to believe that their losses will ever be compensated. Writing about the Assam flood is writing about these sufferings that have continued since Sei Nodi Nirobodhi was written in the 1960s.