The curse of the Kosi

R. KRISHNAKUMAR
at Belwara

BELWARA, a small village on the eastern embankment of the Kosi, has been eroded in large stretches by the river at least 11 times in the past three decades, according to the villagers. The sluice gates that were built on the embankment, to allow the Satr as Dhar, a tributary, to enter the Kosi, is now in a state of disrepair, smashed by the deluge in 1984, and clogged, as the Kosi's bed is at a higher level. The tributary is now a dead stream on a new route along the embankment, submerging areas original ly protected by the eastern embankment.

When the embankment was being built in the late 1950s, villagers who lived in areas within, such as the family of Brajendra Singh, were sold on the dream of "land for land, house for house, employment for one" and "permanent salvation from floods". But t he promises seldom materialised, and even if they did, the results were not as rosy as they were made out to be.

The alternative land offered was soon permanently waterlogged and thus unproductive. The construction of some houses was abandoned half-way through as the loan disbursements did not come. No employment was offered. Only a few were "rehabilitated". So Bra jendra Singh has continued to live within the embankment whenever the Kosi shrunk its flow, and has no place to go when the river engulfs his land annually. "It had always been the river of sorrow for us. We cannot control it. The embankment must come do wn," he said.

KEDER SHARMA
The sluice gates that were built on the eastern embankment of the Kosi to let the Satras Dhar into the river, smashed by a deluge in 1984.

At the time of construction, the two embankments of the Kosi had 304 villages between them and the river. In the last 40 years, the Kosi has never failed to inundate these villages and life has been quite unsettling.

Those who fought to stay immediately outside the embankments, by demanding at the time of construction that the space between the embankments be kept to a minimum, are no better off today. Satyanarayan Sahai, who lives outside the embankment on "protecte d land", too wants it to be dismantled. "By the end of October, the flood waters within the embankment drain out, but the so-called protected land where I live is permanently water-logged," he explained.

Says Prabhu Narain Javad of the local Jyan Vigyan Samiti, which is spearheading a post-literacy movement in the village (the literacy rate here is 10 to 15 per cent): "We have shifted our homes 11 times from the village. There were floods during the time of our forefathers too. But the intensity was bearable. The silt that the Kosi spread on our lands was good for our crops. Now everything has changed. The embankment has spelt our doom. The river got us... for trying to control it."