World's Largest River Island Majuli(Assam) Is Now a District Thursday Sep 08,2016

Majuli, the 400 sq km island on the Brahmaputra has become the first river island district of India.

This was one of the first decisions taken by the Sarbananda Sonowal government in Assam, on their first cabinet meeting on May 24,2016 after coming to power with a thumping majority.

The island, which is the cultural capital of the state, is also fighting for survival as almost 60% of the land has been washed away by the Brahmaputra.

The long neglected island was brought back to the limelight after the then Chief Ministerial candidate of the BJP ,Sarbananda Sonowal decided to contest Assembly election from here.

One of his poll promises was to make Majuli a separate district.

So far, locals travelled over one and a half hour on ferry, to reach the district administration office in Jorhat.

The island remains cut off from the world by the mighty Brahmaputra for a good part of the day and the entire night.

The boats to and from Majuli to mainland (Jorhat) ply only between 8 am to 4 pm.

With Majuli becoming the 35th district of Assam, the 1 lakh 54 thousand odd people living here can breathe easy.

They would not need to run to Jorhat for every little administrative need. But announcing the district was the easy part.

Much tougher challenge awaits the administration if they want to improve the quality of life of those living here.

Majuli has shrunk to by almost 60% of the 1,245 square km of its area in 1950.

Every year the island is ravaged by floods and the only variable factor of this annual tragedy is the extent of the damage caused.

The threat is such that even the traditional flood proof houses of the island’s main ‘Mishing’ community have failed to thwart the impact of the water gushing in.

The island remains out of bound for the greater part of the monsoon, as Brahmaputra becomes too ferocious for ferries to ply.

Chief Minister Sonowal however promises action. He says that a comprehensive plan has been made for dredging the whole Bramhaputra river with the help of World Bank and Asian Development Bank.

The dredging he says will greatly help in solving the erosion problem of Majuli in the coming days.

Note

Assam is divided into 35 administrative geographical units called districts.

On August 15 2015, Tarun Gogoi,CM of Assam, announced the formation of 5 new districts in the state, taking the total number from 27 to 32.
The 5 new districts are the following

• Biswananth (carved out of Sonitpur)
• Charaideo (carved out of Sivasagar)
• Hojai(carved out of Nagaon)
• South Salmara-Mankachar(carved out of Dhubri)
• West Karbi Anglong(carved out of Karbi Anglong)
  

On January 26 2016, 2 more districts were announced by Assam CM Tarun Gogoi taking the total number from 32 to 34.

•  East Kamrup(carved out of the eastern parts of Kamrup Metro)
• South Kamrup (carved out of the southern parts of Kamrup Rural)

On June 27, 2016 one more district was announced by Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal taking the total number from 34 to 35.
Majuli (carved out of the Northern parts of )Jorhat
It is the first river island district of India