Must lines of people end at broken road. Must we wait and watch helplessly as the annual boulder-pitching ritual is played out and the Padma sweeps in inexorably? These questions are raised at the end of the 28 minute film titled The Road to Nowhere produced by Debjani Sinha and sponsored by the Centre for Environmental Education, Ahmedabad district, West Bengal by the changing course of the Padma river which flows along the Bengal-Bangladesh border, eroding one bank and building on the other, a phenomenon particularly true of deltaic rivers.

The focus is on the plight of the inhabitants of Akhrigunj, literally last settlement, a village on the banks of the river Padma. Akhrijung as well as several other villages on the northern boundary of Murshidabad district have been washed away, depriving the people of their land, livelihood and homes.

The film quotes official figures to draw attention to the fact that over 40,000 hectares of arable land has been eroded, (the period is not mentioned). The rate of erosion is as high as two metres each week during the monsoon. Particularly vulnerable is the right bank of the 94 kilometres stretch downstream of the Farakka barrage, leading to Akhrigunj. This stretch is shown strewn with broken, abandoned homes and crumbling walls; where earlier there were dense mango groves, now only a few trees remain; crops are scanty.

A couple of stately colonial style building with imposing Corinthian columns of great historical and aesthetic value are in danger of being washed away. The imposing palace of the Choudhary family in Nimitita, the location of Satyajit Ray’s film Jal Sagar, and the royal family home at Lalgola lie abandoned and dilapidated, awaiting submergence.

Displaced villagers have scattered and settled wherever even an handkerchief size piece of land was available. A new class of people called neo-refugees has been created. Some have moved as many as five to six times, making do without any basic facilities like water, education and medical aide. Those with foresight and the means have dismantled their houses and moved them brick by brick to safer sites. The more adventurous have migrated to the village of Nimalchar on the other side of the river where enormously fertile land called ‘char’ has been created by the deposits of alluvial silt.

The cause of the erosion of such magnitude has been attributed to geological characteristics of this region. Some tend to blame the construction of Rs. 160 crores Farakka barrage completed in 1971.

As early as 1801, Major R.H. Colbrook noted the river Padma shifted westward by 90 metres each year. The Geological Survey of India reveals startling figures. The distance between the Padma and the Bhagirathi (another prominent river in this region narrowed from 6 kilometres in 1944 to 2.9 kilometres in 1975. Today it is as little as 1 kilometre in some places. According to the Pritam Singh Committee, set up in 1978 to study post-Farakka river ravages, if the Padma were to breach its embankment it could flow into the Bhagirathi. The consequences would be mind-boggling.

The measures taken by the government to stave off this disaster have been half-hearted, insufficient and often ineffective. Boulders are dumped as a protective barrier a few metres below the water and along the embankment at a stupendous cost of as much as Rs. 30,000/p per metre. But boulder-pitching activities are haphazard and far from successful helping only the contractor and the politician. Often these barriers are washed away after just one season. In Akhrigunj, a new embankment was filmed by the camera team, crumbling away just 42 days after it was constructed. A 2000 metres long barrier costing Rs. 6 crores also displayed huge gap: Rs. 5 lakhs worth of construction activity lost every two days!

The interviews conducted revealed the anger and disillusionment among the villagers and the indifference of the politicians and the authorities.

The film does not offer any specific solutions beyond suggesting that a planned, sustained programme of economic rehabilitation of the villagers should be given priority. Additionally, the oustees should be compensated for land and household loss.

The exact extent of the area which requires attention is also not clearly mentioned. Facts are often repeated, perhaps to create a greater impacts on the viewer. However, the film is able to successfully portray the desperate conditions that exist along the banks of the Padma. q

THE GREEN AGENDA

The November polls have spurred a number of voluntary agencies to draw up a list of environmental issues that the candidates seeking election ought to address. But the discussions among them led to the formulation of a longer range strategy. The consciousness of the public will be sought to be raised through handbills distributed in select Delhi localities and the insertion of advertisements in newspapers. This process will, however, not be limited to a one-time shoi. The NGOs agreed that it requires to be continued over a period of years after the polls since the issues involved are complex and their underlying linkages can be brought forth over a length of time.

The other shift in strategy involved the nature of the green agenda that the elected representatives will be asked to promote. It was felt that issues such as open spaces (The Ridge), air pollution, congestion and urban housing would be too limited; rather, members of the elite are essentially concerned with them. The agenda will be broad-based to include civic amenities, sanitation, water supply, mass transit system and child health. For these directly affect the environment and the elected representatives should be asked to answer how they intend to tackle them. After the polls they ought to be pressured to ensure that the green agenda does not remain on paper.

For further information contact any of the following NGOs :

Lokayan, WWF, Development Alternatives, DRAG and Kalpavriksha.