ITAHARI, Sept 17: Sixty-two-year-old Arjun Chandrabanshi of Barahakshetra Municipality-6 in Sunsari is in his twilight years. He has lived on the fertile Srilanka Island, a river village in eastern Nepal surrounded by the Saptakoshi River, since birth. But this year, as the Saptakoshi River has continued eroding land and reached close to his house, he has become increasingly worried that the river could sweep it away. He is in a dilemma about where to go after leaving the fertile land his family has farmed for generations.
“We have spent this year watching the Koshi erode the land,” Chandrabanshi said. “It no longer feels like we can continue living like this forever.”
The Koshi’s erosion toward Srilanka Island, which lies in Barahakshetra Municipality-6 and 9, began in mid-June and has yet to stop.
“The river that used to flow far away from us is now right next to our courtyard,” Chandrabanshi said. “From next year, I plan to arrange a place to live somewhere outside Srilanka Island, no matter what.”
The family of Jiwachhi Kumari Mahato has also been displaced by the Saptakoshi’s erosion. After the river swept away their farmland, she is now living on someone else’s land.
“We are living here after making a simple fence on someone else’s land,” she said. “As we cannot continue living here, we are preparing to move to Sarlahi.”
Her husband owns two and a half katthas of land in Barahathwa Municipality-8, Sarlahi, where they have started building a house. Jiwachhi said they plan to move after her eldest daughter, Janaki, who is studying in Grade 10, completes the Secondary Education Examination (SEE).
“For five years, the Koshi has continuously eroded the land, and this year it swept away everything,” she said. “The flood in Rasuwa on August 26 also made us realize that it is not safe to live near rivers. Once we realized that our lives could be at risk at any time, we started building a house in Sarlahi.”
Arjun and Jiwachhi are not the only ones planning to move. As the Koshi has continued eroding the area, the families of Sukdev Kabirath, Radhe Kabirath, Sanicharan Kabirath, Balicharan Kabirath and Manoj Kabirath have already moved this year to Prakashpur, east of the Saptakoshi. They moved only a week ago.
The family of Dukhu Kabirath has also left the place where it had lived for years and moved to Jhapa. Balicharan Kabirath is also preparing to move to Prakashpur.
“Fortunately, we somehow managed to acquire one kattha of land in Prakashpur, and we are now preparing to move there too,” Balicharan said. “We should not live here by putting our lives at risk.”
The changing course of the Koshi
About a week and a half ago, 22 families were moved to safer locations after the western channel of the Saptakoshi changed its course and continued eroding the area.
According to Badri Kumar Rai of Barahakshetra Municipality-6, the Koshi eroded the area despite the presence of a spur constructed by the Indian government last year using stone-filled wire gabions. Locals say erosion is more intense toward Barahakshetra-9, where there are no such spurs.
According to local experts, the Koshi changed its course and began flowing eastward following the 1988 earthquake. For a long time afterward, the eastern embankment area remained at risk.
On August 18, 2008, when the Koshi breached the eastern embankment at West Kusaha in Koshi Rural Municipality-3 and entered human settlements, it caused significant loss of life and property.
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In recent years, however, growing concern has returned among locals that the Koshi could follow its old course as it has increasingly shifted westward.
“There is no certainty about the river. We saw what happened in Rasuwa, and the Koshi is right before our eyes here,” said Buddhiman Majhi of Barahakshetra Municipality-6. “The government should take steps to relocate the residents of Srilanka Island elsewhere. If an incident like the one in Rasuwa happens in the Saptakoshi, all the residents here will be at risk.”
After the Koshi changed its course through locals’ registered land following the 1988 earthquake, the government provided some families with one and a half katthas of land each east of the Koshi. However, families that owned larger areas of land did not move east of the Koshi and have continued living on public land.
In the second week of August 2022, when the Koshi changed its course in the Dumribot area of Belaka and entered westward, some settlements in Belaka as well as Barahakshetra Municipality-6 and 9 were affected. A large number of people were displaced at the time.
Locals say that when the Koshi changes its course, settlements in these two wards of Barahakshetra as well as Belaka Municipality-2 and 3 of Udayapur could be affected.
The municipality estimates that around 10,000 people live on Srilanka Island. After crossing the main channel of the Saptakoshi, small mud houses extend to the bank of another channel about three kilometers to the west. Although there is no well-defined road network, people travel to and from most parts of the settlement.
Srilanka Island is surrounded by the Koshi on both its eastern and western sides and is home to Chandrabanshi, Urau, Tharu, Yadav, Kabirath, Musahar, Koiri, Khatwe and Sarki communities from the Madhesh, as well as Rai, Limbu, Magar and Brahmin-Chhetri communities.
According to locals, the Island as it exists today did not exist until 1988. The Koshi used to flow westward. Later, it split into two channels, east and west, and the land between them developed into an Island.
Vegetable farming transforms lives
The lives of residents of the risk-prone Srilanka Island have been transformed by vegetable farming. Agriculture is the main source of livelihood here. Farmers, in particular, have begun earning good incomes from tomato farming, turning the Island into a vegetable production hub.
According to Balak Chandrabanshi of Barahakshetra-9, pointed gourd production was once dominant on the Island, which was even known as the “capital of pointed gourd.” However, pointed gourd farming gradually disappeared as moisture levels declined over time. Farmers have now shifted their focus to vegetables that provide higher returns.
Arjun Chandrabanshi’s four sons—Rambilas, Laxman, Shriram and Jabdi Bachchhadhan—have been cultivating tomatoes on a large scale. They earn at least Rs 6 million annually from tomato farming. They have set a target of earning Rs 10 million this year.
According to Shriram, they started tomato farming on 10 katthas of land four years ago. They gradually expanded the area to two and a half bighas, then three bighas, and have planted tomatoes on five bighas this year.
They have brought 25,000 seedlings from India this year. Shriram said planting will be completed by the end of September and tomato production will continue from mid-November to mid-April. He said they started tomato farming on a trial basis after watching videos about tomato cultivation in India.
After earning a good income in the first year, they increased the area under cultivation every year, he said. He and his elder brother Rambilas had also gone abroad for work. However, after being unable to save more than Rs 50,000 after expenses, they returned home and started vegetable farming.
“Now, each of us earns at least Rs 1.5 million annually,” Shriram said. “We also provide regular wage employment to 20 people throughout the year.”
According to him, those workers receive around Rs 6 million in wages annually.
Despite the good income from vegetable farming, the risks remain equally high. Farmers say they sometimes suffer major losses due to changes in weather and diseases.
Besides tomatoes, farmers produce cauliflower, cabbage, radish, eggplant, peas, chilies, onions, carrots, French beans, long beans, cucumber, okra, pumpkin and ridge gourd, among other vegetables.
Paddy is also cultivated according to the need.
Balak Chandrabanshi also depends on vegetable farming. After returning from Kuwait in 2018 after spending two years there, he said he now earns up to Rs 6 million annually from farming.
He plans to plant 15,000 tomato seedlings this year. The seedlings have been brought from Chhattisgarh, India.
Vegetables produced on Srilanka Island are purchased directly from farmers by traders from eastern markets including Itahari, Inaruwa, Dharan and Birtamod.
According to locals, tomatoes are cultivated on more than 300 bighas of land on the Island.
Maize production is another source of income here. Maize planted in mid-October is harvested and sold.
Locals say around 300 traders visit the island every year to purchase maize.
A mixed settlement
Srilanka Island is not home only to people who have lived there for generations. Families whose economic conditions have weakened because of floods, landslides and other disasters have also settled there.
People have arrived from Saptari, Siraha, Udayapur, Sunsari and Morang, as well as eastern hill districts such as Khotang and Okhaldhunga.
After the Maoists launched an armed conflict in 1996, some families came to the island in search of safety. After living there for a long time, they established homes and settled permanently.
Some families of Bengali origin who came from India during the construction of the Koshi embankment have also been living there. They have now become Nepali citizens.
A significant number of families also make a living by working on public land.
Technology makes life easier
Until a few years ago, Srilanka Island lacked even basic facilities. Now, however, motorcycles can be found in most households. Most people have mobile phones.
The arrival of electricity in the village five years ago has also made daily life easier.
When there was no electricity, people had to travel by boat to Prakashpur, about three kilometers away, just to charge their mobile phones.
Locals say that when there was no electricity, elephants would enter the settlement and even cause loss of human life.
According to former ward member Buddhiman Majhi, four people from Srilanka Island have died in elephant attacks.
“There are many more facilities compared to the past,” Majhi said. “These days, elephants have also stopped coming because of electric lights, but life is becoming increasingly difficult. I wish the government would take the residents of Srilanka Island out of the area surrounded by the Koshi.”
Security concerns
The residents of Srilanka Island have become economically stronger through vegetable farming. Some families have even begun acquiring land east of the Koshi. But their dream of prosperity is now at risk as the river continues to erode the land.
Locals are demanding that the government build a long-term embankment to prevent the Saptakoshi from entering the settlement.
Four years ago, when the Koshi entered westward from Belaka Municipality-8, the federal government had announced that it would construct a long-term embankment. However, locals complain that no effective and sustainable work has been carried out so far.
“We are completely surrounded by the Koshi,” Buddhiman Majhi said. “The incident in Rasuwa has already shown that we should not continue living like this for much longer.”
Every government formed since 1990 has said that the problems of people affected by the Saptakoshi would be prioritized. However, locals complain that no long-term solution has been found despite settlements being eroded year after year.
For the residents of Srilanka Island, who have been dreaming of prosperity through vegetable farming, there is now only one concern: that the Koshi’s erosion could sweep away not only their farmland and homes, but also their future.
