Man who devised method to combat erosion

MORIGAON, August 5: Loy Ram Bora is a schoolteacher by profession. But today he is no less than a flood control expert and an anti-erosion specialist. On the banks of the river Brahmaputra in Morigaon and Nagaon districts, he is the most sought-after person for his innovative method to fight erosion, the biggest problem of the area. In the last two decades, 45 revenue villages of Bhuragaon revenue circle were washed away by the mighty Brahmaputra. The Bhuragaon market was 7 km from the bank of decade ago. Today it is just 100 metres away, counting its days. Loy Ram Bora has seen people losing hundreds of bighas of land, school buildings, hospital, offices and playground by the devouring river Brahmaputra. He has seen rich landlords turning paupers and working as daily wage labourer. He has seen systematic looting by the government agencies in the name of flood control. "And then I thought of doing something on our own to save the remaining land even if it is already too late," he said. Bora thought out a simple and basic method. He bore the bank by 30 to 35 feet and then planted the bhaluka bamboo, the longest bamboo available in the village. He put the saplings at a distance of 2 feet and each row is at an angle of 30 to 35 degree towards the river. Then there were two rows which were filled with sand to make it a spur. Although the effort was initially an experiment, it has caused wonders during this wave of flood, giving confidence to Loy Ram Bora to announce that his success rate is around 70 per cent. The word has spread like wildfire. The villagers are now taking upon themselves the task of constructing such spurs around their villages throughout the bank with Bora offering expert advice. As all the ingredients of the spur are available in the villages, it is not only cost-effective but the villagers too are highly enthusiastic. If that too is washed away by the Brahmaputra then we have nothing to lose, said Sonamoni Hazarika of Jotibari village. He is not worried because each spur costs around Rs 6,000 and the entire village pools in the money and lend their own labour to build it. They are happy at being able to control the rate of erosion during the current floods. The villagers of Pakakati, Barawati, Nathgao and Chutiagaon have also taken up the venture with the people of Jatyabari to control erosion. Already the enthused villagers have formed the Bhuragaon Gorakhoniya Pratirodh Samittee (Bhuragaon Erosion Protection Committee) to spread the indigenous technology with a motto of solving the problems locally without depending on the authorities. "Each boring needs around Rs 35 and if the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) could have helped in that regard, we could have built much more spurs," said Bora. The flood control department has already lavished praise on the effort. The executive engineer of the department at Morigaon admitted as much. Officials from the North Eastern Centre for Technology Application and Rural Development (NECTAR) recently visited the work and were stunned by the success of the technology. Debajit Bora, the spokesman for the team, said such efforts should be much more stable and effective than the government sponsored through deep angular and dense boring.