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River island project in Assam’s Sivasagar brings jobs, takes on human-animal conflict
Borgaon village is a part of the Rajabari gaon panchayat, a cluster of villages by the Brahmaputra. The residents of these villages — who are from the Deori, Mising, Gorkha and ‘tea tribe’ communities — largely subsist on farming, rearing cows and fishing.
4 min read
Aditya Vikram Yadav, former district commissioner of Sivasagar For residents of riverine villages in eastern Assam’s Sivasagar district, floods and human-elephant conflicts are regular fixtures on their calendars. Hira Robi Das, a resident of the district’s Borgaon village, recalls that a woman from a neighbouring village died last year after being trampled by an elephant.
Borgaon village is a part of the Rajabari gaon panchayat, a cluster of villages by the Brahmaputra. The residents of these villages — who are from the Deori, Mising, Gorkha and ‘tea tribe’ communities — largely subsist on farming, rearing cows and fishing. Last year, they were told of an ambitious project by the district administration to transform a largely uninhabited island to both create economic potential and reduce conflict with elephants.
Moh Khua chapori, a sprawling riverine island, has become the site of a large-scale bamboo plantation project led by the district administration in PPP mode with a company called QuickEdge Integrated LLP. For the initiative, Aditya Vikram Yadav, formerly the district commissioner of Sivasagar, received The Indian Express Governance Award on March 4 under the ‘Sustainability’ category.
From May to June last year, 70,000 bamboo saplings were planted on 80 hectares of land, employing locals in the work. The aim is to develop a bamboo forest and sell bamboo harvested from there to a bamboo-based ethanol refinery, and provide 40% of the revenue to the Rajabari gaon panchayat.
“Last year, men from the village were paid under the NREGA to dig trenches… When the plantation was happening, 70-80 people were working there each day and receiving wages. We’ve been told there will be more work for harvesting, transporting and supervising later and more opportunities for work in processing the bamboo as well,” Luit Deori, another resident of Borgaon, said.
While trenches had been dug to keep elephants out of the plantation area, the rest of the island has been left as an elephant corridor. Another plantation was done last year on a 20-hectare patch: napier grass for elephants to feed on, with the aim of prevent them from wandering into villages for fodder.
However, the project faced its first major challenge last year when the trenches did not prove enough to keep the elephants out of the plantation and they swam in with flood water.
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“Now the focus before this monsoon is on installing solar fencing before new plantations to keep the elephants out until the forest develops,” said Gyandeep Baruah, who works on the project for Quickedge.
Aditya Kumar Yadav, who’s currently joint secretary at the Assam CM’s Secretariat, said: “It is replicable at places where wastelands exist. The Zila Parishad gets the maximum revenue and villages are benefitting from this. Our main goal was to provide livelihoods and reduce animal economic losses.”
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