Majuli, the world's largest river island, a biodiversity hotspot and an offbeat tourist destination, is located in the heart of Brahmaputra in Assam, NE part of India. Majuli is the epicentre of Assamese Vashnavite culture and houses over 30 Satras, which are cultural and educational centres. UNESCO is reviewing its nomination for world heritage site status. It specifically attracts birding as its fertile floodplains and highly productive wetlands provide an ideal habitat for a plethora of resident and migratory birds, up to 260 species. Almost 192 villages with a population of ~167,304 are present on the island. The primary occupation of the villagers is agriculture. Livestock, fishery, pottery, and making boats are the secondary occupations of the people of Majuli. The majority of the houses are built either on uplands or raised platforms constructed out of concrete or bamboo; in contrast, the farmlands are situated in lowlands and get inundated during floods.
Climate change impact:
Majuli is unique because of its geomorphology with islands within islands and its landmass, which changes shape every summer due to heavy floods. Climate change has resulted in chaos on the river island. The intensity of rainfall has altered, creating drought in some years and flood in others. According to experts, due to global warming, the fast melting of Himalayan glaciers -two-thirds of Majuli could disappear by 2100. Global warming results in heavy flooding due to an increase in extreme rainfall events causing continuous erosion of embankments and pushing it to a possibility of becoming non-existent in the next 15-20 years, according to the Majuli Island Protection and Development Council, a local non-profit agency. The floodwaters are submerging more and more areas of the island and for longer periods making land infertile, affecting crop yield. These changes in the cropping and fruiting patterns are disturbing the food chain which in turn causes changes in the feeding, breeding and migration patterns of animals. Also, the number of migratory birds that visit the island annually has declined. Inland water and freshwater biodiversity are also at risk of extinction because of climate change impact.
Satellite imagery study shows that the landmass of the island has reduced from 1,256 square kilometres in 1971 to only 524.29 square kilometres by 2016, losing half of its area. This statistic is frightening and is posing many questions about the future of Majuli’s existence.
Saving Majuli, is it possible? What’s being done to save the island?
Bank erosion has always been a major problem over Majuli, but the erratic flood pattern over the last few years has made it more of a problem. Majuli is facing extinction risk due to man-made and naturally created factors. Its future existence would depend upon implementing a proper flood-management plan by integrating scientific, technical experts and local knowledge. For large-scale recovery of the island, community interventions such as afforestation drives and the promotion of eco-tourism activities are the only solutions. Apart from these, the state government of Assam has also put forward the Assam State Action Plan on Climate Change (2015-2020). These include river bank stabilisation, creation of embankments at strategic locations, the establishment of a flood warning system, conducting extensive flood modelling studies and finding long-term solutions to mitigate the adverse flood impacts. In terms of the physical aspects of the study, advanced technologies such as satellite remote sensing and GIS should be used to assess the river dynamics in a spatial-temporal domain and the geomorphological nature of the river Brahmaputra. The plan also includes the construction of an adequate number of flood shelters and other floods mitigation-related infrastructure.
Since the rate of land erosion is totally disproportionate to land restoration efforts, the need to create a plan bringing together the various factors is urgent. That is the only chance to save the largest riverine island in the world, and those that live there – humans, birds, and animals.
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