Rebirth of a River: An Account of the Tuni

 During the heydays of military operations to steer the upswing of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) in early 90s, we would frequent a small but ravishing river, particularly during Bohag bihu for taking a bath or to douche our cattle. That was a period when we would experience our childhood’s awe and wonder in almost every object of nature. The beguiling river was a tributary of the mighty Brahmaputra, known as Tuni. The river flowed amid the historic Majuli island, the centre of Satriya culture and heritage of Assam. Though the etymology of the name of the tributary is misty, it resonates albeit connotations of a tiny bird called Tuni in Assamese, best known worldwide perhaps as Munia, Chestnut Munia or Scaly-breasted Munia.

Majuli has been in news for various reasons of late—political, religious, natural beauty, geographical hazards, proselytization, heritage site, connecting bridges to the island and so on. Majuli, now a district, is a river-made island, one of the largest river islands in the world with several Vaishnavite monasteries known as Satra. One colonial account reveals that it was around 130 miles in the 18th century.1 Dr. J.P. Wade who visited Assam in 1792 recorded that the island was around 160 miles in length and 60 miles in breadth.2 With continuous erosion, however, the landmass of the island was reduced to 1246 square kilometres in 1950 which again declined to 480 square kilometres in 2001.3

The Tuni river, the only river of island, had a history closely associated with the formation of Majuli island. Dambarudhar Nath, a historian hailing from Majuli, opines that the Tuni river, originating from the Brahmaputra at the northeastern part, flows through the island to fall into the Brahmaputra again on its southeast.4 This river, he holds, is a cut off part of the river Dikhow.5 There is however another slant that the rivers such as Disang, Dikhow, Disoi and Dhansiri once used to flow to Brahmaputra along with south-eastern boundary of present Majuli and Tuni is a channel of the old Dikhow.6 Whatever might be the history, this river flowed across the island and connected various streams and channels of Majuli such as Sukan xuti, Dighali xuti, Mori Tuni, Ou Dubi, Doriya Dubi etc.  Majuli was full of river channels, swamps, reservoirs and ponds. As the Tuni river had direct or indirect access to such channels or bils, it regulated the drainage of most of the parts of Majuli. With regular flood in summer, the river would make fields of the island fertile. The Tuni river also catered adequate fishes and water for different purposes including drinking water to people and rendered livelihood to numerous people of the island, particularly to the fishermen. The natives used to visit the river in several socio-cultural occasions and they performed rituals in its bank. Tuni was indeed considered as the sustenance of Majuli.

Map
The Tuni River on Map, Source: SDC office, Majuli 

 I was born and brough up in Majuli. I left my home, nevertheless, after matriculation to pursue higher studies and only in vacations I would go home, of course, off and on. I had no maturity then to intuit changes, either in society or in other spheres, led by a number of factors including globalisation. After around 10 years I however ascertained causes of some problems in the river island and undeniably sensed apprehensions among people on changing geography of Majuli due to soil erosion and recurring floods. Another prominent alteration which had nonplussed me was that the bonny Tuni had turned into a cadaver as she was blocked by a ‘modern’ road where earlier, there was a wooden bridge. It was not merely the death of a river; her death literally had brought menace to a civilisation, in fact.

“The Burial of the Dead”:

When I untangle thoughts on Tuni in retrospect, I unravel a couple of wooden bridges, black in colour, over fresh bluish water of the river. Frequent floods yet sourced from the Brahmaputra via Tuni piteously effected the villagers of the island who were mostly farmers. Crops such as rice, vegetables, grains and fruits often got tore down. Soil erosion by Brahmaputra has also been a periodic phenomenon in Majuli after the great earthquake of 1950. The erosion cropped up prominently in the last decade of the 20th century in different parts of the island, particularly in Salmora and Aahotguri. The intensity of erosion in the 90s grew so staggeringly that portents had emerged to Kamalabari, the doorway and foremost market place of Majuli.  As a measure of protection from such erosion, one flake of Tuni was closed off near Dhapak village, an adjacent area to Kamalabari in 1991 by constructing an embankment. This step on the contrary intensified the river current near Patia Gaon. Frequent floods thus betided in Majuli through the bridge over Tuni at Patia as soon as the level of Brahmaputra rose. This blemished hard-laboured crops of the villagers in unvarying intervals.

Villagers especially from the middle Majuli therefore started demanding to choke the river in Patia Gaon where it glided under the bridge. The government officials were reluctant to take action on the issue in the beginning. The villagers in due course began occluding the river themselves in 2002 by filling earth over it, which was a resistance against nature. Surprisingly, instead of either taking recourse to any scientific measure or making the villagers aware of the hostile effects of such obstruction, the government blocked the river. Though the villagers instantly expressed sigh of relief as they thought that flood would not hamper them anymore for this blockage, that unscientific and hasty decision of the then Majuli sub-divisional administration paved the path for a protracted and intricate issue of eco-sustainability in the river island very soon. 

What people had witnessed after the blockage was beyond their comprehension and imagination. The water logging in the paddy fields of Majuli due to the gridlock of Tuni at Patia had created ineffable stumbling block. Here I have quoted a statement made by Dambarudhar Nath:

“…all lands on its banks which once were good cultivable zones for winter crops, have now been submerged under water for a long time creating an artificial lake due to the land-locked water mass which would otherwise have passed into the Brahmaputra sweeping all garbage from all around”.

Hyacinth and grasslands fattened everywhere on the river. There was hardly any semblance to call it a river.  The neighbouring areas of the river thus turned into fecund lands for mosquitos and reptiles only. The still water of the river was unfeasible to drink and use in any case, either for cleaning or for bathing. People experienced unknown skin diseases who yet stepped into Tuni for inexorable reasons. The production of fish in the bils and ponds of the island unduly declined as no fresh water through Tuni would reach those ponds. A living river turned into a poisonous body, apparently. Villagers no longer would continue to visit Tuni for ritual such as Bihu. The younger generations did not get any chance to develop affable attachments with the river the way we had in our childhood. The river got a non-natural or rather, a premature death. Certain tradition died as well along with its death.  The picture below of the river taken in 2018 apparently shows that river had turned into a vast grassland.

tuni1

The Rebirth:

Nonetheless, the situation was not tolerable for a section of educated people though most of the villagers started embracing the post-blockage scenario as ‘destiny’. Rajen Chandra Borah, who teaches Economics at Majuli College was one of those few villagers to evoke a resilient voice on the long-term effects of the gridlocked river. Borah initially attempted to make people aware of how an invigorated Tuni might change living condition of the natives who resided in the bank of the river. In 2010-11, he distributed leaflets and organized meetings among the localities residing near Tuni to create awareness for reviving the river. People’s responses to his campaign were not encouraging in the beginning.  In fact, some people attempted for encroachment in his meetings in certain places. He however carried out the spirit and continued awareness meetings in different places. Sasidhar Das, a retired school Principal and Ananta Ngatey, former President of Pakajora Gaon Panchayat came out in his support. Gradually several other joined the race and with the help of people of Majuli middle, Madhya Majuli Jal Nirgaman Sangram Samitee was constituted in 2016 which basically demanded for construction of a sluice gate to flash out the stagnant water of Tuni.  Interestingly, another committee named as Tuni River Reclamation Demand Committee was already constituted in 2015 under Mr. Borah’s leadership. These two committees together initiated a mass movement which forcefully demanded for construction of a Sluice Gate at Potia where the blockage was made in 2002 and also for complete reclamation of Tuni.

Responding to their scientific demand, Government of Assam vide letter EE(M)/EST-127/2017-18/1048 sanctioned work order for constructing the sluice gate on 15th May, 2018. As a result, the sluice gate was constructed at Patiya where the river was closed off in 2002. It was expected that the sluice gate would rebuild the eco-system of the river channels in the island by connecting Tuni to Brahmaputra. Though the step was instrumental to an extent, the rebirth of Tuni was yet half-finished because large wetlands, swamps and marshy elements got tangled up colossally with the river over the years. The initial reckless current of the river was not seen and only during summers the river attained the fresh water of the Brahmaputra when the sluice gate was open.

The Tuni River Reclamation Demand Committee, which had been relentlessly demanding for revivification of Tuni, therefore, submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister of Assam on July 4, 2023 to resuscitate the river copiously. They also placed a detailed proposal to the Chief Minister through the District Commissioner of Majuli for unabridged reclamation of Tuni. The committee convinced the authority concerned that a rejuvenated Tuni would not only bring back livelihood to thousands of the villagers, but also would commence a new horizon in the field of eco-tourism in Majuli.

Notwithstanding the conventional bureaucracy at different levels, the state government of Assam this time has initiated a project in December 2023 for reclamation of Tuni river by sanctioning an amount of Rs. 21 crore. This has been seen by many as a major incident in the history of Majuli. The natives of island who have been habituated with false assurances and promises of government and politicians over the last 75 years of our independence on a number of issues including its soil protection and UNESCO’s World Heritage recognition, express their happiness hearing this. In fact, the news has ushered the people of Majuli to a path of light. They really want to be the witnesses of a historic development—the rebirth of a dead river!


Some government assigned agencies have already started the preliminary cleanliness drives of the river. The early works seem promising as a revitalized Tuni is noticeable clearly. There is, of course, long way to go, with apprehensions and hopes together among people. This also affirms the importance of nature and natural resources for mankind in a time of rapid climate change.

tuni river
The River Tuni in April 2024 during the initial cleanliness drives, Photo: R.C. Borah

Notes:

  1. Hamilton, Francis (1940). Ed. S.K. Bhuyan. An Account of Assam, Guwahati: Government of Assam, Guwahati, p.26
  2. As cited in Nath, D (2009): The Majuli Island, New Delhi: Anshah,, p.6
  3. Nath, D (2009): The Majuli Island, New Delhi: Anshah, p.7
  • Nath, D (2009): The Majuli Island, New Delhi: Anshah, p. 8-9
  • Nath, D (2009): The Majuli Island, New Delhi: Anshah, p.8
  • N. C. Thakuria (2015): Geography of Majuli, Kamalabari: Majuli Press, p.4

Dr. Debabhuson Borah is a Faculty at Birangana Sati Sadhini Rajyik Vishwavidyalaya, Assam. He may be reached at [email protected]

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