Farm

Genocide by indifference

The people of Chaubari, Uttar Pradesh have lived alongside and have depended on the Ramganga river for generations. Now, an upcoming barrage is poised to wipe them out.

Author : Chicu Lokgariwar

The Ramganga has many impediments in the course of its 655 kilometer stretch from its origin in the mountains of Uttarakhand to its confluence with the Ganga in Uttar Pradesh. In addition to the Kalagarh Dam, there are already two barrages along its length and now a third one is coming up a few kilometers from Bareilly.

The engineers of the UP state goverment consider the barrage to be benign as it will only impound water during the monsoon, with releases during the winter. When asked about the changes that will be faced by the people who live upstream of the Bareilly barrage, they shrug it off as' the price of development', a price that is indeed too high according to those who will be impacted by this. 

The 'Paalage farmers are sharecroppers. Besides giving part of the produce, they also spend on expensive hybrid seed, pesticides, and rent for the truck to carry produce to the market.
'The water that comes from the cities increases our yield' says Nazar Hussain. The cucurbit and melon farms do an excellent job of cleaning the river of its organic waste. With the farms gone, the polluted water will accumulate above the barrage and convert the lake into a foetid mess.
Devout people in India throw coins into a river when they cross it, whether by rail or road. Nearly 50 boys and young men earn a living by dragging rows of magnets along the sandy bottom of the river and collecting the coins that stick to the magnets.
The people living on the banks of the Ramganga at Chaubari practice fishing with a net or line. Adil says, ' A cast of the net gives us a handful of fish for dinner that night. That is enough'.
These two little girls are among the very few who regularly ask for alms at the river banks.With the disappearance of the farms, many now-employed farmers will have no choice but to swallow their pride and beg.
With the dam, the always-privileged Pandas stand to profit. The stone ghats proposed near the newly created lake will attract rich pilgrims from the city, which means greater earning for the Pandas.
With the loss of their livelihood, the youth of Chaubari will have no option but to migrate to nearby towns to earn a living as labourers. Once there, they are prey to increased living costs, substance abuse, and a host of sexually transmitted diseases.
A pinch of sealant at a time, Mushtaq-once a paalage farmer- patches the leak on his second-hand boat. With each patch, he hopes to secure a livelihood for himself and his family.

 View more photos of the people living along the Ramganga.

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