Nightmare: Changing River Course (Impact on Cultural Landscape in Moribund Delta Region, Murshidabad District)

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Alluvial tracts of Bengal Delta are a subject of research for the past few decades. Bagchi (1944) has classified the Ganges Delta region into three sections, vix, moribund, mature and active parts of the delta. In the Moribund delta, rivers have ceased to be in the active stage and land building has been arrested. Here tributaries are highly silted and are marked by abundance of oxbow lakes. The Geographical extent of this Moribund delta covers the districts of Murshidabad (eastern part of the Bhagirathi river only), part of Nadia and 24 Parganas in West Bengal and Jessore, western part of Faridpur (Goalando subdivision) and small portion in the north of Khulna in Bangladesh. The study area is in Murshidabad district of West Bengal. The Moribund delta region, the oldest part of the delta, has been formed by silt from shifting of the Main River and major distributaries. The slope of the moribund zone is very gentle, causing quick silt deposition in river beds. This process decrense carrying capacity of the river channels and induces occasional floods. It also causes a gradual or sudden shifting of river channels to a more low lying area. Thus, the Moribund delta is being marked by dead and dying rivers characterised by contrasting levels, i.e. very high river beds and banks and low marshy or water logged land. According to Singh (1971) the easterly shift of the Ganges is also responsible for this moribund condition of the region. The Padma, the main course of the Ganga at present, is the principal river of the region as well as in Murshidabad district and total drainage system of the area is controlled by the oscillation and changing course of the Ganga from the Bhagirathi to the Padma. Shifting of the Ganga from the Bhagirathi to the present course the Padma through the subsequent channels viz., the Bhairab, the Jalangi, etc., has been probably completed by the 16th century. Majumder (1942) admits the difficulties to determine when the great change took place, but there is hardly any doubt that in the beginning of the 16th century A.D., the Padma, already has ranked as the main stream of the Ganga. From the very existence of the river Chhoto Bhairab, some concentric water bodies and numerous crescent shape settlements in the western part of the Bhairab, Rizvi (1958) has come to the opinion that the Bhairab has marched gradually castward abandoning its course. Existence of numerous natural levees at Bhagwangola, Murshidabad and Jiaganj also establishes the gradual onstward shifting of the Padma and its distributaries. The name of the agricultural land as "la bhangar jami (la means boat) in the studied village-Sahajadpur may be mentioned as a proof of the statement. People say that many years ago remnants of boats have been found during digging of soil. Again from the O' Malley's District Gazetteer (1914) it is known that the Bhairab used to take off from the Padma close to the point where the Mahananda used to flow into it. It had been suggested that it originally formed a continuation of the Mahananda, which cut in half by the Padma as it established its way eastwards. It has been observed from O'Maley (1914) that the Bhairab was the main channel through which the Jalangi used to obtain its supply from the Padma. Various hypotheses were in vogue to identify the causes behind this changing nature of the courses of the rivers. Some said that the platform for this fluvial action was set through tectonic activities. Morgan and Intire (1959) assessed the changes in the course of the Ganga and the Brahmaputra rivers during the last few hundred years due to faulting and resultant tilting of fault blocks. These changes had caused the Ganga to abandon numerous western distributaries in favour of joining the Brahmaputra Meghna system to the southeast. Mukherjee (1938) referred that it was probably deflection of the Kosi, which was an easterly flowing river to the west in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and strengthened the channel of the Padma. Formerly, the combined water of the Kosi, the Mahananda and the Atrai flowed into the Lohitya. Tremendous changes took place in the course of those and other Himalayan rivers which might have been due to silting up of the drainage basin along the Himalayas by the debris from the hill slope and sudden seismic disturbances and those rivers began to flow into the Ganges. Thus, this change became responsible for the mighty force of the Padma. Sengupta (1972) said that the shift of the present rivers of West Bengal appeared to be the outcome of two distinct features: (i) a regional south-easterly slope of the basin, caused to some extent by movements on the hinge zones located at the edge of the shelf and (ii) an increasing rate of southerly tilt of the West Bengal part of the basin due to a relatively greater rate of subsidence of the south western part of the hinge through the tertiary and recent times. Mukherjee (1938) referred that most of the eastern part of Murshidabad district was originally an estuary.

The increasing erosion in the right bank of the Padma in the Moribund delta region of Murshidabad district, West Bengal is becoming the nightmare for the people of the area. The Padma is the principal river of the region and controls total drainage system of the area by oscillation and change of its course. As the Padma is a meandering river, bank erosion followed by flood is the common phenomenon. But indiscriminate drawal of water in the upper reaches of the Ganga, deforestation and most importantly construction of Farakka Barrage has aggravated the dimension of river bank erosion. Areas near the Padma have seriously been affected by the changing course of the mother river or its distributaries. In the present treaties author has tried to focus and highlight through empirical data that the study area according to intensity of erosion has been divided. Thousands of hectares of land and many settlements have already been obliterated making the settlers pauper. It has been reflected in variation of landholding size and change in the status of land owning gentry which in chain lead to affect households as well as occupation structure in those regions. The study has shown that changing course of the Padma is also responsible for changing occupation pattern, population and settlement pattern also. Region wise variation has also been observed in land use pattern and agricultural land use. The lowest diversification of crops in the Most affected region proves the most agricultural uncertainty of the area. Differences have been found in loss and availability of infrastructure facilities for irrigation and use of agricultural implements. Thus, changing course of the river has caused various changes which brings not only a nightmare to the habitat but it also has affected subsistence pattern which is full of agony with the mercy of celestial world throughout the region. With this empirical study it has also been highlighted people's perceptions and government efforts found in this region to minimise this hazard. The planners, NGOs and social activists can easily formulate any development scheme on the basis of first hand information documented through empiricist by researcher-Geographer and accordingly a fruitful programme may be executed where the author has also put some suggestions to mitigate the problems arised from this natural phenomenon.

Dr. (Mrs) Archana Datta is M.A., Ph.D in Geography from the University of Calcutta. She has carried out extensive field work as a research personnel of Anthropological Survey of India in West Bengal, Bihar and Sikkim. Her special interest is to observe process of human adaptation to cultural landscape in different ecosystems. She has authored five books entitled (1) Changing Patterns of Land Use Among The Baigas of Madhya Pradesh, (2) India - An Illustration of Tribal World, (3) India - An Illustrated Atlas of Scheduled Castes, (4) Development of tourism in Sikkim, (5) The Wonderland - Alaska. In addition she has more than 40 research papers.