HEKERAJAAN, July 31 - Massive erosion by the Subansiri river has left 16 families homeless in Hekerajaan, in Bhimpora Mathawri village near Bogeenadi in Lakhimpur district. The erosion swallowed an area of almost four square km in that village sweeping away houses and agriculture lands with standing crops.
The erosion swept away the houses of Hasan Ali, Absar Ali, Ashraf Ali, Akkas Ali, Abbas Ali, Zehirul Ali, Sonali Ali, Sahar Ali, Binod Ali, Samsher Ali, Sahjahan Ali and Jengrai Goyari. These persons also lost their agricultural lands measuring ten bighas each with standing crops, bamboo groves, lemon trees and medicinal plants.
Many villagers living on the banks of Subansiri have also evacuated themselves seeing the river moving swiftly towards them. Some of them have also removed their houses to save them from the fast moving erosion and shifted to makeshift camps in other�s lands with great difficulty. The agrarian villagers who earn by selling the firewood cut from the drifting branches of the trees of the river in the nearby Bogeenadi weekly bazaar are now facing starvation along with their children and elderly persons.
The affected villagers urged this correspondent to make the concerned authorities pay heed to their present plight and misery. Presently what these affected families want is a speedy compensation package from the concerned departments and lands for their rehabilitation. So far, no relief material has reached this erosion hit village under Kadam Revenue Circle near Bogeenadi, 20 kms south-east from district headquarter North Lakhimpur.
The Kadam Circle Office too, has taken no initiative to provide relief and rehabilitation measures to these affected people. The district Water Resource Department is too found complicit in this case as they have not started any erosion-preventive measures in this area though the erosion has been on for more than a week.
