Dams bring landslides, bury villagers in debt

Panic first rained down when mud and boulders thundered past the villagers’ homes on the slopes around Vehloli and Shenava during the July 12 deluge. “Since then, we have been fearing the worst as more and more earth slips by with every bout of rain,” says Goma Thombra (45), a resident of Ambyachiwadi. Lack of information coupled with fear has Thombra convinced that the repeated mudslides are a harbinger of an earthquake.

Thombra says mudslides on both sides of Bhekarkhandi hill simply wiped out 1.5 acres of his two-acre plot, on which he grew paddy. He says landslides on the east and south-west face of the hill uprooted all the trees in their wake and brought them crashing down in the fields.

Today, a three-foot-deep layer of soil covers the paddy and the monsoon run-off continues to rain loose earth on the remaining 0.5 acres as well. “We have to eat what we grow,” says a despondent Thombra, who wonders what he will feed his children when they run out of rice. Thombra has already lost two children to malnutrition in 1998-99.

Nature has vent her fury most on Diwalwadi, Bamnicha Kapra and Katichiwadi, where Babji Devu Wakh has lost his entire 3.5-acre plot. Driven to the edge, Wakh tried to hang himself but was saved by relatives. “I had borrowed money from a trader on heavy interest thinking I would repay him with this year’s crop. But now, even if I sell my house and utensils I shall not be able to repay the loan,” he sighs. The only well here has been buried under tonnes of mud and the residents now rely on the monsoon brooks for water.

Tehsildar M.P. Jadhav inspected the destruction after the Shramik Mukti Sanghtna intimated him of the situation on August 23. Vijay Sathe, who heads the non-governmental organisation, feels the villagers should receive eithermonetary compensation or rehabilitation. Jadhav says the panchnamas regarding the losses sustained have been completed and the papers have been forwarded to the district administration so that villagers can receive compensation.

Dr V. Subramaniam of the Department of Earth Sciences at IIT Powai, who has been studying the seismic activity in Thane district since 1992, says the faultline in question runs through Murbad, Shahapur, Ulhasnagar and Kalyan talukas. This could partly account for the recent mudslides. But he points to more ominous signs. “The presence of the Bhatsa and Barvi dams in Shahapur and Ulhasnagar talukas respectively also puts pressure on the tectonic plates here,” he told The Indian Express. He says the ongoing work on raising the height of the Barvi dam is only accelerating the imbalance.