A Study O the Bank Erosion by the N River Jia Bharali And

International Journal of Advanced Research in Engineering and Technology (IJARET) Volume 11, Issue 12, December 2020, pp. 2358-2367, Article ID: IJARET_11_12_223 Available online at http://iaeme.com/Home/issue/IJARET?Volume=11&Issue=12 ISSN Print: 0976-6480 and ISSN Online: 0976-6499 DOI: 10.34218/IJARET.11.12.2020.223

A STUDY ON THE BANK EROSION BY THE RIVER JIA BHARALI AND ITS IMPACT ON THE PANCHMILE AREA OF TEZPUR TOWN, ASSAM (INDIA)

Niha Dutta Department of Geography, Darrang College, Tezpur, Assam, India

Gulap Sonowal Department of Geography, Darrang College, Tezpur, Assam, India

Dr. Gitika Thakuriah Department of Geography, Cotton University, Guwahati, Assam, India

ABSTRACT The problem of bank erosion by the river is becoming very serious day by day. The state of Assam in India is such a flood affected region which bears the brunt of bank erosion by the mighty river Brahmaputra and its tributaries in every rainy season. The flood and bank erosion by the river Jia Bharali, a right bank tributary of the Brahmaputra, have been creating havoc in the Panchmile area of Tezpur town for the last few decades. Due to its increasing erosive intensity day by day the Panchmie area is now under severe threat of erosion and the river start to shift towards northwest, if it’s shifting continues then it will be a thinkable matter for the people of Tezpur town in near future. Keeping this in mind, an attempt to study about the bank erosion problem of Panchmile area and its consequent impact in details with the help of geo-spatial tools is made. Keywords: Bank erosion, flood, geo-spatial tools, mighty river. Cite this Article: Niha Dutta, Gulap Sonowal and Gitika Thakuriah, A Study on the Bank Erosion by the River Jia Bharali and its Impact on the Panchmile Area of Tezpur Town, Assam (India). International Journal of Advanced Research in Engineering and Technology, 11(12), 2020, pp. 2358-2367. http://iaeme.com/Home/issue/IJARET?Volume=11&Issue=12

1. INTRODUCTION ‘Erosion, transportation and deposition are the key functions of a river through which it creates different landforms and brings about changes in its course. When the river overflows its banks, it creates natural calamities including flood, erosion and sedimentation’ (Baishya,

http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJARET 2358 [email protected] A Study on the Bank Erosion by the River Jia Bharali and its Impact on the Panchmile Area of Tezpur Town, Assam (India)

2013). As a geomorphic process, riverbank erosion is commonly associated with the channel migration or shifting of riverbank by lateral widening as it is related with the sequential changes in the position of bank line and changes within the channel. Along with the changes of course in a river, bank erosion leads to varying degrees of landscape degradation. It has a great impact on the socio-economic and ecological life of the people as it’s associated with the human displacement, loss of farmlands, agricultural fields and livestock etc. Riverbank erosion is observed in riverside and floodplain regions of the world and posses a significant concern. ‘In a developing country like India, poverty drives many people to live on increasingly eroded riverbanks and they often become the victims of bank erosion which threatens their personal safety and shelter as well as their sources of livelihoods’ (Das, Halder and et al, 2017). The Ganga and Brahmaputra are the worst example in case of flood and riverbank erosion in India with long term socio-economic impact on human life. As a natural disaster, flood and bank erosion by the Brahmaputra and its tributaries are almost regular phenomena in the state of Assam during rainy season in which the loss due to flood is temporary and the river bank erosion one is permanent with long term effects. ‘River bank erosion is not a serious problem but this natural hazard becomes a disaster when human settlements are situated too close to eroding banks. Anthropogenic activities along the river including deforestation, gravel mining, construction of dams and bridges, artificial cut offs, bank revetment and land use alterations disturb the equilibrium of the river dynamics, change the morphology and natural dynamics of rivers which accelerate the rate of bank erosion’(Das and et al, 2014). The Brahmaputra, one of the largest rivers of the world, flows for 2880 km through China, India and Bangladesh which is highly a braided channel. In Assam, its total length is about 750km. and flows through the districts of Tinsukia, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh, Lakhimpur, Majuli, Jorhat, Sibsagar, Golaghat, Biswanath, Sonitpur, Nagaon, Marigaon, Darrang, Kamrup, Barpeta, Goalpara, Bongaigaon, Dhubri and Mankachar. Though this mighty river is known as the lifeline of Assam but some districts have being severely affected by its bank erosion problem. Sonitpur is such a badly affected district located in the north bank of the Brahmaputra river; where the bank line of the Brahmaputra River is migrated northward due to bank erosion. Jia Bharali is a right bank tributary of the Brahmaputra River and there is a great shift of the channel towards northwest at the lower course of this river near the outlet of Brahmaputra. There are many villages under Tezpur sub division that are severely affected by bank erosion during rainy season and many socio-economic parameters are lost. Among them Samdhara, Garchinga Bihia, Tengabasti, Alichinga Uriumguri, Karaiani Nepali Gaon, Uriam Guri, Jorgarhgaon and Rajbharal Gaon of Panchmile area is undertaken in this study for determining the spatio-temporal changes of shifting and bank erosion of Jia Bharali river. Remote Sensing and GIS is one of the most sophisticated tools for environmental deterministic research studies. Now-a-days, both this sophisticated tools play an important role in identification of spatio-temporal changes of shifting and river bank erosion. Therefore, river bank erosion in Panchmile area of Tezpur town is done at 1:50,000 scale using geospatial tools to identify the high risk zone of bank erosion. The high resolution images give accurate and precise data for a particular region and essential to evaluate the trend of river shifting. Various multi-temporal satellite images are used for identification of water bodies to study the temporal migration of the Jia Bharali River which will be helpful to understand the behavior of the river. The history of migration of Jia Bharali river towards west bank near the Panchmile area of Tezpur town before mingling with the river Brahmaputra has been a phenomena of 5 decades old. Even if such a continuous process of channel shift of the river and consequent devastation of the land and property of the

http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJARET 2359 [email protected] Niha Dutta, Gulap Sonowal and Gitika Thakuriah inhabitants no concrete and effective measures were found to be in existence. Moreover, this year in April –May 2020, the migration of the Jia Bharali river came to an extent of meeting the old moribund Mara Bharali (dead old channel of the Jia Bharali river) river creating a threat of massive channel shift of the river and consequent flowing near the Tezpur town (through the Poruwa river bridge) and posing serious threat in the areas near the eastern part of Tezpur town. Considering the seriousness of the problem, this paper is an attempt to study about the shifting of the Jiabharali River Bank line with the help of geo-spatial tools and its impact on the Panchmile area of Tezpur town.

2. STUDY AREA Tezpur, the Cultural Capital of Assam, lies between 26º 38ʹ north latitude and 92 º 48ʹ east longitudes with an area of about 40 km2 and bounded by Rangapara in the north, Jamugurihat in the east, Dhekiajuli in the west and Nagaon in the south. Climatically, the study area falls under sub-tropical monsoonal type of climate with an average temperature of 21ºC and around 10ºC during summer and winter seasons respectively. This beautiful town of northern bank of mighty river Brahmaputra is dotted with a range of lower hills and hillocks like Agnigarh, Auguri, Bamuni hills with luxuriant growth of ever-green and semi-deciduous forests. Along with this lower hills and hillocks Tezpur town is also decorated with some different geometric shapes low-lying areas which are abandoned channel of the River Jia Bharali. With the density of 2,600 persons / km2 the total population of this beautiful town is 102,505 (2011 census).

Figure 1 Location Map of the Study Area

http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJARET 2360 [email protected] A Study on the Bank Erosion by the River Jia Bharali and its Impact on the Panchmile Area of Tezpur Town, Assam (India)

3. OBJECTIVES The major objectives of this study are as follows:  To study about the shifting of the Jiabharali River Bank line in the study area.  To study about the problems faced by the local people due to river bank erosion.

4. DATABASE AND METHODOLOGY Here, the study of bank erosion by the river Jia Bharali of Tezpur town is carried out using various methods and techniques. The location map of Tezpur is delineated from the SOI (Survey of India), Toposheet at the scale 1:50,000. The Remote Sensing Satellite Images help to identify the changes of the landscapes with special reference to spatio-temporal, and these techniques reduce the traditional methods and tools used by human and it is less time consuming. In this paper, it is investigated that how geospatial tools can implement to study about the bank erosion affected area.

Table 1 Details of Database DATABASE DETAILS OF DATABASE SOURCES OF TYPE DATABASE Toposheets 83 D/10 and 83 D/14 Survey of India Satellites images IRS LISS IV and Landsat 8 National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), Hyderabad Village map Revenue village District Commission office, Sonitpur Distric, Tezpur. To obtain the second objective a relevant household survey schedule has been prepared. The necessary data are collected from the randomly selected sampled households through survey schedule and self observation. Besides, in order to know the ground truth GPS points are also collected from the field. In case of secondary sources along with Population Census data of 2011 various published newspapers’ reports including The Assam Tribune, journals, magazines and books are consulted to draw the conclusion.

5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 5.1. Shifting of Jia Bharali River Severe bank erosion by the river Jia Bharali has been occurring since 1970 and is associated with the losses of valleys, households, cultivable lands, domestic animals in the study area. According to field survey report, in the recent flood that has occurred in the month of May- June 2020, around 20-25 families become homeless along with the losses of agricultural fields, number of cattle, goat and poultry in the Panchmile area of Tezpur town. The Toposheet of 1970’s (Prepared by Survey of India, Toposheet No. 83 D/10 and 83 D/14) is taken as the base map and 2010’s Satellite Image (LISS IV) and 2020’s (Landsat 8) is taken to show the rate of shifting of the channel.

http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJARET 2361 [email protected] Niha Dutta, Gulap Sonowal and Gitika Thakuriah

Figure 2 Channel Shifting of Jia Bharali at lower course of Brahmaputra (1970-2010)

Figure 3 Channel Shifting of Jia Bharali at lower course of Brahmaputra (2010-2020)

http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJARET 2362 [email protected] A Study on the Bank Erosion by the River Jia Bharali and its Impact on the Panchmile Area of Tezpur Town, Assam (India)

Figure 4 Channel Shifting of Jia Bharali at lower course of Brahmaputra (1970-2020) The magnitude of Channel migration of Bharali River is shown in the following Table 2 with the help of 7 cross sections of major and minor changes in the course. The Channel migration are not uniform at the various cross sections, some took place because of avulsion and others due to soil properties, geology structure, tectonic activities, high discharge, precipitation and influence of human activity. Along with this the river clip, slip off slope, width of the channel, current flow, meander belt are also held responsible for channel migration.

Table 2 Magnitude of Shifting Rate from 1970-2010 and 2010-2020 SL.NO 1970-2010 2010-2020 Right (Km) Left Right Left (Km) (Km) (Km) A - 2.36 - 0.69 B - 1.87 - 0.78 C - 2.37 - 0.83 D - 0.98 - 0.80 E - 0.79 - 0.39 F - 0.30 - 0.43 G - 1.03 - 0.36

From the Figure 5 it is cleared that during the period of 1970-2020 there is a great shift of Jia Bharali river towards northwest with alarming rate. Nearly 8 villages of Panchmile area of Tezpur are under flood inundation in which both the Garchinga Bihia and Tengabasti villages are almost going to erase out by the bank erosion and the remaining villages including Samdhara, Alichinga Uriumguri, Karaiani Nepali Gaon, Uriam Guri, Jorgarhgaon and Rajbharal Gaon are at the rate of erosion.

http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJARET 2363 [email protected] Niha Dutta, Gulap Sonowal and Gitika Thakuriah

Figure 5 Flood affected Villages Map, Tezpur Division Besides, in order to know the ground truth some GPS points are also collected which are represented in Figure 6.

Figure 6 Collection of GPS Points

http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJARET 2364 [email protected] A Study on the Bank Erosion by the River Jia Bharali and its Impact on the Panchmile Area of Tezpur Town, Assam (India)

5.2. Problems Faced by the People of Panchmile Area Living Near the Bank of Jia Bharali River  Severe river bank erosion is associated with the losses of households, cultivable lands, domestic animals etc. Rarely the victims of Garsinga Bihia village are able to get Miyadi Patta land for making shelter. But, they become frequently homeless due to bank erosion that has been occurring since 1985. According to field survey report, around 20-25 small villages washed out in the flood of last 35 years. In the recent flood, around 20-25 households become homeless along with the losses of agricultural fields, number of cattle, goat and poultry.  After being displaced from their original land, the victims move to nearby land, villages or take shelter by making huts in embankments, sand bars. They have gathered some bitter experiences also in the newly settled areas including changing family status or degradation of their quality of life due to losses of their livelihood pattern (as most of the people are engaged in the primary activities), become poor to very poor, try to engage some new occupations for survival and sometimes they get separated from the society by treating them as illegal migrant people.  Frequently occurred flood creates great havoc in the physical and cultural landscapes of the study area. Sometimes, water level rises to 3 feet from the actual land surface which can create unhealthy and unhygienic environment by spreading up diseases, scarcity of food etc.  For the protection of the area from severe bank erosion, crores of money has already been sanctioned to the area, but due to massive misappropriation, people of this area have to pass sleepless nights during the rainy season. If this shifting phenomenon continues then it will join the Mara Bharali river very soon which (it is an ephemeral tributary of Jiabharali) will create an unimaginable condition in the landscape of Tezpur town and its peripheral area by affecting both physical and cultural landscapes.

5.3. Govt. Initiatives in order to Mitigate the Problem of Bank Erosion Though the Panchmile area witnessed several flood protective measures by the local Govt. authority but it has not been worked properly due to planning gape and lack of implementation of proper flood control measures in the area. Based on the field survey Porcupine method (Figure 7) has not worked rather it costs the exchequer immensely. Besides, Local community complained very strongly about decades old corruption in this bank erosion problem and viewed that it is remained a source of income for vested interest groups. As mentioned above, a huge amount of funds were sanctioned in every year in order to control the problem but due to massive misappropriation of the allotted funds and severe attitude of the local administrative authority towards the area the villagers are not able to see a permanent solution of this problem till today. In order to grant permanent full stop of this problem the local Govt. have to start their working process from the very beginning of the dry period. But it’s like ‘Willing to work when the ideal time has passed’ in the area as the installation of the Porcupine and Bamboo sticks as protective measures during rainy season is not the true reflection of the Govt.’s serious concern regarding the matter. For this purpose, the Govt. should deal with the entire issue very sincerely in the greatest interest of the study area as this area adjoins major places of Tezpur town including Tezpur University, SSB Training Center for Northern Frontier.

http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJARET 2365 [email protected] Niha Dutta, Gulap Sonowal and Gitika Thakuriah

6. FINDINGS 6.1. The Major Findings of this Study are as follows  Severe river bank erosion of Panchmile area is associated with the loss of households, cultivable lands, domestic animals, poultry etc. According to field survey report, along with the loss of human lives, around 20-25 small villages washed out in the flood of last 35 years. In the recent flood of 2020, around 20-25 households become homeless along with the losses of agricultural fields, number of cattle, goat and poultry.  After being displaced from their original land, the victims move to nearby land, villages or take shelter by making huts in embankments, sand bars where they have gathered some bitter experiences including changing family status or degradation of their quality of life due to losses of their livelihood pattern (as most of the people are engaged in the primary activities), become poor to very poor, try to engage some new occupations for survival and sometimes they get separated from the society by treating them as illegal migrant people and have created an acute socio-economic environment by the affected people.  The PanchMile area has witnessed several flood protective measures (Figure 7) which have not been worked. It is due to planning gape and lack of implementation of proper flood control measures in the area. The Porcupine method has not worked rather it costs the exchequer immensely.

Figure 7 Installation of Porcupine Method in the Village of Garsinga Bihia  The affected people of the area alleged that despite sanctioning of crores of money to the area during the last few areas as protective measure, large parts of the villages under Panchmile area have been eroded and created an unwanted situation among the villagers. Due to the massive misappropriation of the sanctioned fund and the neglecting attitude of the administrative stuff, people of this area are not able to find a permanent solution to this problem till today.

7. CONCLUSION After flood, the massive erosion that cause by the Jia Bharali river affects the villages of Panchmile area very badly for which the villagers have to pass sleepless nights in every summer. Though the study area has witnessed several flood protective measures but it has not been properly worked out. If the proper effective solution of this problem is not find out then

http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJARET 2366 [email protected] A Study on the Bank Erosion by the River Jia Bharali and its Impact on the Panchmile Area of Tezpur Town, Assam (India) it will create an unimaginable condition in the landscape of Tezpur town along with its surrounding areas in near future.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Authors want to thank Dr. Joysankar Hazarika, Principal of Darrang College, Tezpur, Assam for assistance with data gathering, household survey and guidance that greatly improved the manuscript.

REFERENCES [1] Swarup Jyoti Baishya 2013. ‘A Study on Bank Erosion by the River Baralia (Bhairatolajan) in Melkipara Village of Hajo Revenue Circle, Kamrup district, Assam, India’. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications. Volume 3, Issue 9: 1-10. [2] P Manjusree and et al 2013. ‘Remote Sensing and GIS for River Morphology Studies’. NNRMS(B)-18, 1-10. [3] Das K. Tuhin, Halder Kumar Sushi and et al 2017. ‘Impact of Riverbank Erosion: A case study’. Australian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies. Volume 21, Number 2, 73-81. [4] Das K. Tuhin, Halder K. Sushil and et al 2014. ‘River Bank Erosion Induced Human Displacement and its Consequences’. Living Reviews in Landscape Research, 5-28. [5] Focks Jaspers D.J. and Algera A. (2006). Vetiver Grass for River Bank Protection. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/2376259936, 1-14. [6] Poa St. James. Erosion Control and Pond Bank Stabilization Methods. [7] Gulap Sonowal and Niha Dutta. ‘River Bank Erosion in Rohmoria, Dibrugarh District part of Brahmaputra River, Assam (India) using Geospatial tools’, unpublished paper. [8] G. Thakuriah, R. Saikia 2018. ‘RS and GIS based assessment of Bank Erosion in Goalpara District part of Brahmaputra River, Assam, India’. International Research Journal of Earth Science. Volume (3), 1-8. [9] G. Thakuriah and Parimita Saikia 2018. ‘River Bank Line Assessment in Barpeta District part of Brahmaputra River, Assam (India) using Geospatial tools’, unpublished paper. [10] G. Thakuriah (2018). ‘Assessment of River Erosion in Morigaon District part of Brahmaputra River, Assam (India) using Geospatial tools’. Research Journal of Recent Sciences. Volume. 7(6).

http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJARET 2367 [email protected]