Assam: Riverine villages under communication bottleneck

North Lakhimpur: They were once known for their finest dairy products and exotic fishes that were served on the plates of the rich. An area inhabited by predominantly Mising communities with their vibrant cultural practices, was part of Lakhimpur district separated from the mainland and district headquarters North Lakhimpur by two streams of the Brahmaputra—Subansiri and Lohit.

The villages of riverine Lohit-Khabalu area, among other issues, had basic problems of communication in accessing vital services like healthcare from Lakhimpur district which were minimum 10 to 15 kms away with no bridges to cross the two streams of the Brahmaputra.

There were dozens of incidents in which patients losing loves while being transported to healthcare centres in Lakhimpur on boats, women dying in labour on boats or giving births under open sky while carried on boats or hand pulled carts, children dying in snakebites due to the delay in reaching hospitals having anti-venoms due to wretched road conditions and inaccessibility by emergency services like 108 ambulances.

There are twenty-seven villages with a population of approximately 30 thousand under the Lohit Khabolu Gaonn Panchayat which were ceded from Lakhimpur district in December 2021 and added to Majuli district with the objective of having ease in communication with administrative installations and facilities.  

The entire riverine Lohit Khabolu Gaon Panchayat of approximately 70 square kilometres is connected to Majuli through three wooden bridges—Kharjanpar-Naragaon bridge and the two Garamur-Patharichuk bridges.

While the Kharjanpar – Nagargaon bridge connects the upper Lohit Khabolu area, the two wooden bridges from Garamur Civil Hospital to Pathorichuk connect lower Lohit Khabolu areas.

These three wooden bridges are the only major communication links for the movement of people and goods in the entire Lohit Khabalu riverine area to reach Majuli. 

However, the dilapidated condition of these three wooden bridges and the roads have made the villagers endure daily ordeals to access vital services like healthcare and education.

During the monsoon season with flood inaccessibility affects the area hard forcing the villagers to cross the river on country boats with great risks as the bridges could not sustain load over troubled water.

Unabetted river bank erosion by the Brahmaputra and siltation on the river beds of Lohit and Subansiri has affected the traditional livelihood of the Mising community of fishing and farming in this riverine area.

These effects of climate change on their traditional livelihood practices, among other things, have led to migration of its youth to the urban centre of the state.

Along with the climate induced calamities the villagers of Lohit Khabalu are enduring daily challenges for their movements--surface communication.  

The current state of communication bottlenecks in Lohit Khabolu area depriving people of access to some of the basic amenities of public service has reflected the same condition as was experienced during its inclusion inside the revenue and administrative map of Lakhimpur district.

People of the 27 villages of this riverine area still have to carry patients in hand pulled carts, in bamboo stretchers (Saangi) and in horse drawn carts or in tractor trailers to the 200-bed Sri Sri Pitambar Dev Goswami State Hospital at Garamur which is only 4 km away.

But this 4 km long journey is an endless ordeal of uncertainty and obstacles with muddy and slippery unmotorable roads in monsoon and in bumpy dusty ones during the winter season risking the lives of the patients before they could reach the hospital.

Many patients in critical and advanced stages of illness could not make it to the state hospital in Garamur due to the delay caused in their transportation.

Tragedy was very common for these 27 villages in accessing healthcare services until recently when Lohit Khabalu was under the territory of Lakhimpur district.

On October 12, 2018 a 70-year-old retired Headmaster of Patharichuk LP School Sashidhar Payeng died while being transported on a hand-oared boat from his village in Patharichuk in Lohit Khabalu to the hospital in Garamur following a stroke.

Earlier on August 17 of the same year he had lost his son Sushi Kumar Payeng (46), an assistant professor at Sri Sri Pitambar Dev Goswami College, Majuli under similar conditions.

On September 12, 2018 one Aimoni Payeng from Patharuchuk village of Lohit Khabalu gave birth to a male child under open sky amidst rain and wind while returning from the Sri Sri Pitambar Dev Goswami State Hospital, Garmur.

Also Read: Assam: Climate change threatens vibrant birdlife, global ecosystems

She was admitted for delivery at the hospital but was sent home by the attending doctor to come after four days.

While coming home after crossing the Lohit stream, she felt labour pain and was forced to give birth under open sky without any medical assistance.

On June 19, 2029 Debananda Doley of Moroliaghat in Lohit Khabalu had carried the body of his daughter Menaka, a student of Class VI wrapped inside a jute bag on his bicycle from the river ghat to his village home. Menaka was admitted at the North Lakhimpur Civil Hospital for a week and was being taken back to her home upon release. However the girl breathed her last on her way back to home on a boat over Subansiri and her father had to carry the body in a jute bag as no motorable road was there from the Moroliaghat to his village.

The non-existence of motorable roads and connectivity fragilities due to weak bridges still affects lives of thousands of villagers in Lohit Khabalu area on Lakhimpur-Majuli riverine boundary despite its transfer to Majuli district from Lakhimpur for close connectivity years ago.