In Bagribari: the river takes it all
The annual monsoon flooding of the Puthimari river, a tributary of the Brahmaputra, is a constant source of anxiety for those who live on its banks. Flood waters destroy farmland, standing crops and even looms, leaving many residents with no option but wage labour. Expensive embankments don't help
September 20, 2023 | Wahidur Rahman and Pankaj Das
‘Who drowned Delhi?’
The capital is getting a facelift as it gears up to host the G20 meet on September 8, 2023. But the sprucing up is selective. Those residents of Delhi who have been displaced by the recent Yamuna floods and on-going development projects on its banks, are now living on public roads, and told to ‘stay out of sight’
September 6, 2023 | Shalini Singh
And a river no longer runs through it
The story of the slow death of the Sai River, the struggles of the villages around it, and of climate change in UP’s Hardoi district. Seen through the lens of the two main persons involved in those struggles
June 17, 2023 | Rana Tiwari
Nanoi floods: the night of June 16
In Assam’s Darrang district, the Nanoi, a tributary of the Brahmaputra, burst its banks due to excessive rainfall. The river water swept into homes, submerged freshly planted fields and emptied fish ponds
July 1, 2022 | Wahidur Rahman and Pankaj Das
'We climbed on trees to save our lives'
Cyclone Yaas brought Mousuni's lands underwater on May 26, a year after Amphan had hit the Sundarbans. PARI visited the island and found people saving what they could of their damaged homes and livelihoods
June 9, 2021 | Ritayan Mukherjee
When the water chased people like a mad bull
In the Sundarbans in West Bengal, Cyclone Amphan came atop the Covid-19 lockdown. PARI visited the region and found widespread destruction of trees, houses and utilities – and of people’s already-frayed livelihoods
June 03, 2020 | Ritayan Mukherjee
Aure Palheri: broken bridge, drowning hopes
Residents of an isolated hamlet in Maharashtra's Shahapur taluka risk walking on a slippery wall every day in the monsoon to reach schools, work, clinics and markets, after the only bridge here collapsed in 2005
August 23, 2019 | Jyoti Shinoli
'What if the river gets angry again?'
On August 4, an overflowing Vaitarna river ravaged the homes of Katkari Adivasis in Maharashtra's Palghar district. The villagers are now anxious about depleting rations, uneven state support and another flood
August 16, 2019 | Jyoti Shinoli
Bhendavade battles Kolhapur flood fallout
At least 40 people have been killed across Kolhapur and Sangli districts of Maharashtra, over 400,000 evacuated to transit camps, and livestock and crop losses are huge but yet to be properly estimated
August 13, 2019 | Sanket Jain
‘It feels like the flood left mud in our mouths’
A downpour in August destroyed the cotton crop in the villages of Adilabad district. Many were first-time Dalit farmers with no insurance and heavy loans, now hoping for compensation and luck with the next crop
October 25, 2018 | Harinath Rao Nagulavancha
The bank that went under – almost
After the floods in Kerala, the clean up underway requires retrieving and rescuing countless thousands of valuable records and deeds, without which many activities could be paralysed for a long time
October 8, 2018 | P. Sainath
Kerala’s women farmers rise above the flood
Their determination outstrips the devastation. Savaged by the August floods, facing a looming drought, the women of Kudumbashree’s pathbreaking group farms are rebuilding, using solidarity as a strategy
September 24, 2018 | P. Sainath
‘The water began to rise slowly, slowly’
After the recent huge flood in Kerala, children at a relief camp in Alappuzha district were given pens, crayons and diaries to draw and write. Their pictures and words speak of their fears and prayers, of loss and relief
August 31, 2018 | V. Sasikumar
‘Our houses are vanishing. Nobody cares’
For decades, villagers from Ghoramara island in the Sundarbans have been migrating to Sagar island because the river and rain keep washing away their houses. They have received little help from the state
July 20, 2018 | Urvashi Sarkar
Polavaram’s dispossessed march with hope
From July 10 to 16, a determined group of Adivasis marched from Cheeravalli village in West Godavari district to Eluru, protesting against the Polavaram project, which will displace and destroy their communities
July 19, 2018 | Rahul Maganti
Pydipaka families: and then there were ten
Hundreds of villages will vanish over time due to the Polavaram project on the Godavari. In Pydipaka, ten families are refusing to move, demanding from the state at least the legally mandated resettlement package
May 28, 2018 | Rahul Maganti
Floods by neglect, flooded by damage and debt
The houses and crops of many Adivasi families in Itukulakota were damaged by flood waters from the Polavaram canal last October. They are still recovering, without any help from the government
May 16, 2018 | Rahul Maganti
‘Many families just vanished…’
Adivasi and OBC families thrown off their land for the Bhatsa irrigation project in Maharashtra’s Thane district still wait for justice almost half a century later
November 16, 2017 | Jyoti Shinoli
The bamboo-splitters of Dhubri
Mainuddin Pramanik of Kuntir island on the Brahmaputra in Assam comes to Dhubri town every day to work as a bamboo-splitter. But the trade is in decline and few other options are available to daily wage workers
October 23, 2017 | Ratna Bharali Talukdar
Unquiet on the riverfront
The fishing communities on the banks of the Krishna in Andhra Pradesh are being forced to leave their homes and livelihoods due to the state’s many riverside projects around Vijayawada and the 'new' Amaravati
October 18, 2017 | Rahul Maganti
Milk boats from the chars
For the people living on Chalakura island on the Brahmaputra in Assam, dairy farming is the only sustainable livelihood – but a withdrawal of state-subsidised cattle feed has increased the uncertainty of their lives
October 3, 2017 | Ratna Bharali Talukdar
Solar on the char
The three villages of Birsing char have got solar electricity in recent years, and it has transformed primary healthcare and other daily activities on these sandy shifting islands on the Brahmaputra in Assam
June 19, 2017 | Ratna Bharali Talukdar
When the river ate the school
The only school in Panikhaiti village on Sontali char in Assam has vanished into the Brahmaputra. Of its 198 students, just 85 continue to attend a makeshift school at headmaster Tariq Ali's residence
February 17, 2017 | Ratna Bharali Talukdar
From river to plate: the journey of the Sundarbans tiger prawn
For village women in the Sundarbans, collecting tiger prawn seedlings is unrewarding and unsavoury work – though the delicacy fetches high prices for others later along the supply chain
January 11, 2017 | Urvashi Sarkar
Struggles of the sandbar people
Hasan Ali is one of 2.4 million people who live on impermanent ‘chars’ or sandbars on the Brahmaputra – without basic necessities, frequently shifting home, their lives dictated by the flux of the mighty river
January 6, 2017 | Ratna Bharali Talukdar
Water come, water go
In north Bihar, people revered the monsoon and rivers, even though they caused floods on occasion. But now, Senu Devi says, the rising waters are a source of trouble
Nove,ber 8, 2016 | Sayantoni Palchoudhuri
Living with floods
While farmers in many parts of the world are learning to manage with less water, Vinod Yadav and his neighbours in north Bihar are trying to farm in constant flood water
November 1, 2016 | Sayantoni Palchoudhuri
In north Bihar, embankments built by the government along the turbulent Kosi have created conflict, aggravated floods and caused huge losses to the people living in Ghongepur and other villages
October 17, 2016 | Sayantoni Palchoudhuri
Swimming to migrate in Odisha
In Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district, buffaloes swim across the local river every day during the summer, seeking fresh pastures
October 2, 2015 | Dilip Mohanty
Mending boats with music
In Alappuzha, Kerala, super-skilled labourers merge repair and rhythms at work
April 10,2016 | V. Sasikumar
A right to fish, a fight to live
“Why confiscate the canoes and hurt us in the stomach?"
March 12, 2015 | Urvashi Sarkar
