Morung Express News
Dimapur | August 22
Bura Rengma (80) and his wife Tege Rengma (68) had decided to move to a quieter corner of their village, close to a small stream, in the Rengma Naga areas of Karbi Anglong once they grew old. In their placid corner at Richangari village, on the night of August 15, they ate, put their dishes on the verandah to wash the next day, and went to sleep. On the morning of August 16, when they awoke, they found themselves trapped. Their house had been blocked off by piles of bamboo all around the house.
In the early hours of August 16, the stream next to their house had bloated manifold and brought large trees, bamboo and rocks with it. The only reason the house survived was because scores of uprooted bamboo had saved it from the ensuing flash floods. The old couple could be saved by the rest of the village folk by cutting through the bamboo only once the floods had subsided.
In another village, Khanari, a 67-year-old farmer was sleeping in his field hut the same night when a sudden gush of water alerted him to untying the cows so they could escape but in vain. A sudden booming sound led to a big flash of muddy water, big trees and boulders. As the first wave subsided and the farmer held on to a small tree, the water stood still—in this time he found a bunch of floating bamboo trees to save himself. 15 minutes later, another booming sound was followed by floods of similarly harsh waters for almost two hours. Tired and almost drowning, he was eventually rescued by the Khanari village folk later that morning of August 16 as he clung on to clumps of bamboo.
Khanari became the worst affected village due to the floods that also affected Khonwani village, Ridongünyu village, Phentsero village, the above mentioned Richangari and some other parts of east Karbi Anglong.
The Village Disaster Management Committee (VDMC) of the Naga Rengma Mouza, as the Rengma areas of Karbi Anglong are currently classified for purposes of revenue (tax) collection, visited some of the affected areas on August 18 along with some departments of the Karbi Anglong Autonomous District Council to take stock of the situation.
While the government departments could not be contacted yet, the VDMC had some accounts from their assessment.
“A huge amount of mud and boulders have filled up the paddy fields of the five affected villages rendering them uncultivable,” said a member of the VDMC who was part of the nine-member team that undertook the assessment.
Unless the government makes an effort to remove these with special equipment, the fields may never be cultivable again. Granaries on the fields were also destroyed leading to a major loss for an already poverty-struck populace of the area.
Meanwhile, the dead fish and carcass that dot the landscape now gives off a foul stench that has spread through the area and is leading children to fall sick. Drinking water sources continue to remain polluted by mud, said the member. People have found some small streams up river to cater to their water needs. Those whose houses have been completely destroyed are being helped by those whose houses were on higher ground but no aid has reached them yet.
The VDMC and government team that went to the spot for assessment also faced their own share of hardships. “There are no bridges in our region, and the rivers that were ankle length have now risen to the chest. Roads have become knee length mud banks. We had to walk three hours in this to cover a 5km stretch,” said the VDMC member.
As more reports of the extent of damage is awaited from the government, both the people in the village as well as officials seem to be pinning the cause of the flash floods on a “possible cloudburst.”
However, Santanu Moitra, an engineering geologist who has worked for decades in mountainous regions, disagreed. “The monsoon rain may have caused a landslide on the river creating a huge obstruction forming a natural dam. The heavy rain water flowing through the river collected upstream of this natural dam forming a reservoir. The water collection in the reservoir kept increasing with further rain. When the water pressure of the reservoir exceeded capacity of the naturally formed dam, it burst with a noise causing a flash flood with debris flow. Since the people heard two booming sounds, there may have been two such spots; one probably triggered the other,” he explained by way of a strong possibility. He suggested that the government “needs to go to the spot to study the area and geologically examine the reasons so that solutions can be accordingly provided to avoid such disasters in the long run.”
