Erosion threatens Mohanbari airport

ROHMARIA, September 10: This place is hardly 20 kilometres by road from Dibrugarh's municipal limits, but even a four wheeled Gypsy ride took an hour and a half to reach the place. This is rural country, once famous for its lush agriculture. Most of the paddyfields have been eroded away by the Brahmaputra. If unchecked, the erosion threatens the existence of an Air Force base, Dibrugarh's civil airport at Mohanbari, several tea gardens and the residences and agricultural lands of the people of the area. The Rohmaria area falls under the Lahowal assembly segment and the population is mainly agricultural. Lately, the area has been found to have rich oil-bearing stratas four and a half kilometres from ground level. At Khagorijan, Oil India Limited had installed three oil rigs after commercially exploitable oil deposits were ascertained. Finding no other way to exert pressure on the state government to take up anti-erosion measures at Rohmaria, the local population have been staging an indefinite demonstration at the Khagorjian oilwells since August 16. Till now, the state government has not reacted to the plight of the local populace, while Oil India is being made the scapegoat. The company now fears that a few more days of closedown of the Khagorijan oilwells will result in irreparable losses, as the oil rigs have been forced to shut operations for the last 26 days.