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 © IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed 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 north- west, 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.