Residents of ‘Sri Lanka’ of Nainital district counting days to be marooned for 3 months
OP Agnihotri / Haldwani
With the monsoon round the corner, the people of a village fear they will be marooned soon. This is their plight for a number of years now: living cut off from the rest of India as soon as the monsoon fury is unleashed on them. Quite appropriately, this locality is called ‘Sri Lanka Tapu’ by the locals though in records of administration it is still called Khuriakhatta, the village in Bindukhatta area of Nainital district from which it got detached by river Gaula in 1985. With the village hemmed in by river and forest, the district administration has built a helipad before the advent of the monsoon season for ferrying people in case of emergency.
Half of the agricultural lands, spread over about 100 hectares-quite fertile otherwise- were washed away in the previous rains when the swollen Gaula gushed into the village, flooding everything. The villagers recount fearfully how the only school in the village was swept away by the furiously flowing river during the devastating 2011 flood. “Since then over 30 children of the village keep walking down to an area away from the river to study,” said Dharm Singh Koranga, a villager with frustration ringing in his voice.
The electricity is still elusive for the people of the area. ” We wonder when we will move out of the lantern age. It is doubtful whether that blessed time will ever arrive for us or not,” Koranga rued.
They say that they have to cross the Gaula to reach school, hospital and even to vote. Though the village is about five km away from Lalkuan they have to detour a very long distance via Sitarganj when the river is in spate. “We send about 150 litres of milk daily to the dairy in Lalkuan in the morning and evening shifts, but all this stops during monsoon when the river floods. We keep on suffering loss helplessly,” lamented another villager.
This village is inhabited by about 40 families and has more than 150 voters. Their main occupation is livestock rearing and farming. They grow sugarcane, paddy and wheat, principally the first.
The elderly reminisce about the terrible flood in Gaula on October 12 and 13, 1985 when this locality got completely cut off from Khuriakhatta and with two streams of river Gaula flowing around it.
One of the villagers said that the area remains totally cut off from Bindukhatta/ Lalkuan for three monsoon months. The villagers are of the view that if the erosion being caused by the dreadfully expanding river during monsoon is not effectively stopped their village may be washed out of existence. “The day is not perhaps far-off when the river swallows us whole unless the administration steps in effectively,” warned a villager.
The villagers demand that the government should construct an enduring embankment and a hanging bridge over the river aside from providing them with electricity. “These are simple but vital for the survival of this village and its hapless inhabitants,” observed Koranga.
