For days now, there has been a huge debate between the two Bengals over Dambura Lake. One thing I keep thinking about is, how can something born out of sorrow itself become the cause of sorrow for others?
So you have to hear the birth story of Dambura Lake. Courtesy of my friend Pradip Majumdar, I read a story. It’s a story by the powerful storyteller Haribhushan Pal called ‘Bhulang Basar Bite Mati’. If you read a part of the story, you will get some idea about the birth of Dambura Lake:
For the Dambura Hydro Project, at least thirty small and large settlements were submerged under water. At one time, the whole region was called Bhulangbasa. In the tribal language, the word also means a settlement on the side of a hill.
Jamatia, Tripuri, Riyang, and Bengalis, all lived peacefully here, despite all the sorrow, misery, and lack. Bhulangbasa was the confluence of two fast-flowing hill rivers named Raima and Saima. The land was so fertile. The fields seemed to vomit crops. Everyone said Bhulangbasa was the breadbasket of this kingdom. Along with that was the jhum crop of the tribal hill people.
Isn’t it strange?
Why didn’t anyone protest? No resistance was built against such an unscientific, unrealistic, and short-sighted plan? Did no one record the plight of 9000 people from 30 villages? When Indira Gandhi came and inaugurated ‘The Longest Canal of the World for the Smallest Quantity of Power’ in 1972 by pressing a button, not a single hand was raised in protest?
Walter Benjamin searched for the origins of civilization in heaps of garbage. How many addresses have been blown away by the storms of civilization? Personal histories have been buried under various political agendas. We don’t seek these out. We read thick books to overcome life’s hurdles, but these thin tales remain unknown to us.
We pray that no one dies in floods in any country in the world. Yet, given the increasing greed, hatred, and aggressive nature of humans, it is certain that Kolkata will be submerged underwater in the next three or four decades.
Let’s not engage in mudslinging against any particular country but try to save our green planet, Earth.
