As the flooded river Sharda cuts aways into land and homes in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri, farmers prepare to migrate for the first time in their lives
Aishwarya Tripathi
Dharmendra Rajpoot
Sunil Yadav’s Nayapurwa village in Lakhimpur Kheri eroded by river Sharda during floods.
Dharmendra Rajpoot/The Migration Story
LAKHIMPUR KHERI, Uttar Pradesh: Sunil Yadav looked nonplussed at the Sharda, the river near his village Nayapurwa in Uttar Pradesh, as if questioning its calmness after flowing wild during monsoons this year. Not very long ago, Sharda changed course- its own and Yadav's life too.
Once a landed farmer with eight acres of land to tend, Yadav is now forced to join the melee of migrant labourers in the country. "Hum logo ki woh dainiya sthiti hai ki kuch kaha nahi ja sakta (I can't explain the sorry state we are in)," said Yadav, as his eyes welled up.
Dipanshu Yadav, who lives diagonally across from Sunil's hut, misses his childhood companion, the Jamun tree in his courtyard. "It was a big tree. I learned to climb it at eight. Once I was wearing a white t-shirt and rubbed my jamun-stained hands on it. I can't forget the scolding I got from my mother," he surmised. The Jamun tree has been swallowed by the Sharda, leaving Dipanshu with memories of the lost house.
As they narrated their stories, every person interviewed - from 33-year-old Yadav to 13-year-old Dipanshu- broke into tears. Anxiety about lost homes and farms is palpable in villages on the banks of the Sharda in Lakhimpur Kheri district. People here have known no other way of life other than agriculture. But with the river changing course every year and the erosion caused by it cutting under their houses, they are compelled to move out of the region in search of livelihood, creating first generation climate migrants from the region.
On July 6 this year, the intensity and volume of water in the Sharda was high enough to start expanding to a larger area and eventually change course. The river began eroding under Nayapurwa in Bijuwa block of Lakhimpur Kheri.
Manoj Yadav looking at his fields that were not taken away by the river Sharda in Lakhimpur Kheri.
Aishwarya Tripathi/The Migration story
On July 28, Yadav's family surrendered to the swollen Sharda. For 12 hours through the night, from 6 pm to 6 am, the Yadav brothers carried their belongings to the other side of the river, to salvage whatever they could. What they couldn’t save was their fields and the huge ancestral house where the joint family lived together- now eroded away by Sharda.
“My grown-up brothers were crying like babies,” recalled Mohini Devi, Yadav's sister, wiping her tears. “Itni zameen thi hamare paas, ki bahar jane ka to kabhi socha hi nahi (We owned a decent amount of land so we never ever thought of migrating),” said Yadav.
The family initially rented a hall-like space at Rs 6,000 per month near to a road. But burdened by the rent, they soon started building a kachcha hut on their piece of land that was not swept by erosion. “Waha se bhage, yahan banaye, yaha se phir chaumas me uthayenge. Ghar ki kimat hum logo ko ab pata chali hai (We have built a temporary shelter here but will have to move again in the monsoon when the river level rises. We now understand the value of a stable home),” rued Yadav.
Sunil Yadav standing outside his temporary hut near the banks of river Sharda in Lakhimpur Kheri.
Aishwarya Tripathi/The Migration story
But Yadav has no time to grieve. He must get the new house ready for his family before he migrates for livelihood. He has already started interacting with seasoned migrant workers in the neighbourhood to know about the relatively safer cities to migrate to, opportunities and tips to manage in a new place. The unease is visible as this is something he always dreaded.
Two years ago, Hiralal, a fellow villager, migrated to Tamil Nadu, recounted Yadav. "When he fell sick, he returned home and died from the illness. We discussed in the family how it was a hasty decision to go so far and how dire things can be in unknown cities," he said. "I didn't imagine I would have to chart the same path one day," he said.
Yadav has practiced agriculture all his life. "I don't know what kind of work I will be able to pick up in a city and will I be able to acquire the skill fast," said Yadav, perplexed.
The wrath of the Mahakali
The Sharda is a Himalayan river that originates in the Uttarakhand Himalayas and flows in the border areas of India and Nepal where it is known as the Mahakali. The 350 km long river merges into the Ghaghara river at Bahraich in Uttar Pradesh. The Sharda and Ghaghara combined bring a lot of nutrient rich soil to the Tarai region, known for its vast tracts of marshy land.
Lakhimpur Kheri, the largest district of Uttar Pradesh, falls in this region. Thanks to its extremely fertile soil, Lakhimpur has flourishing agriculture with people growing sugarcane, wheat and rice. The high agrarian yield of the Terai region attracted settlers and farmers from Punjab began migrating to this region after partition of India in 1947 - earning it the epithet of mini-Punjab.
Boatmen fetching straw from the other side of river Sharda to build huts in Lakhimpur Kheri.
Aishwarya Tripathi/The Migration story
But the rivers inundating the Terai region meander frequently, resulting in floods. So far, the riverine communities in Terai had adapted to it. But increasing erosion in the last three years has left thousands of people homeless and landless.
On July 7 this year, two lakh cusec water was released from the Banbasa barrage on River Sharda in Uttarakhand, raising the river level in Lakhimpur Kheri. The October 14 press release by the Office of Relief Commissioner says that the flood this year impacted five tehsils, constituting 370 villages and a population of 2,93,858. The meandering river engulfed 571.292 hectares of land, eroding 39 villages partially or completely.
This included Nayapurwa. Sharda was three kilometres away from Nayapurwa till 2023. Then it changed course, resulting in erosion of 18 out of 56 houses. This year, it took away the remaining homes, including Yadav's, in the span of a month.
What causes erosion?
Experts cite changing rainfall patterns as the prime reason for erosion. “The Sharda is an alluvial river that meanders naturally and cuts through soil. But high intensity of rain in short periods in the upstream due to changing climate has increased the inflow of the river during monsoons. It then spreads out in a larger area to balance its intensity which can increase its erosive power,” Venkatesh Dutta, Professor at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow, explained to The Migration Story. Dutta specialises in natural resource management, environmental flows and river restoration.
Villagers show a picture captured on a phone of the erosion by Sharda river in Lakhimpur Kheri.
Aishwarya Tripathi/The Migration story
Climate change has also increased the return period of floods. "With changing climate, a flood that occurred once in 100 years is taking place once in 25 years and the ones that occurred in 25 years are back in 10 years which puts riverine communities at risk," said Himanshu Thakkar, Coordinator of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People.
Straightjacketing rivers within embankments is also a reason for erosion. "The Himalayan rivers are highly silt prone. The embankment prevents the spread of the river on the floodplains. The larger silt particles that get deposited within the embankments reduce the carrying capacity of rivers. The resulting water level rise cuts through the soil alongside heavily," said Thakkar.
The Sharda flows for 164 kms in Lakhimpur, out of which 43 kms is between mud embankments. 24 Gram Panchayats and 106 villages fall between these embankments.
Systematic degradation of wetlands, water bodies and vegetation around rivers besides upstream projects like dams and barrages contribute to the intense impacts of the floods in downstream areas. "A river is the report card of its catchment. Any degradation in the catchment will impact the river flow. A tipping point comes and once erosion starts, it only increases," he pointed.
Swept off their feet, literally
Natives of Lakhimpur are becoming first time migrants in response to this.
Manoj Yadav, Dipanshu's father, is also planning to migrate. "This village has been pushed back by ten years (by development parameters). The immediate need is not children's education but building a house and finding a steady source of income," said Manoj who lost nine acres of prime agricultural land and his homestead too. "Both my mother and wife came to that house as new brides. I spent my childhood there. But today I have no idea what my children will call home. They could not even attend school for a month due to the floods," said Manoj.
Pammi Devi managing her kitchen outside a makeshift hut in Lakhimpur Kheri.
Aishwarya Tripathi/The Migration story
Even as his wife Pammi Devi is fearful about it, Manoj is adamant to migrate as he wants to provide for his children's education. “Nobody has ever migrated from our family. We hear all the time about people meeting with accidents and never returning home. I can’t live in peace here when he is so far away,” she said.
“Jab nadi sukh nahi de rahi hai to dukh me kaatna padega (if the river doesn’t want to give us happiness, we have to accept its sorrow). I tell him that we will adjust with whatever we have as long as we stay together as a family,” she said.
While Manoj and Sunil Yadav have their apprehensions about migrating for the first time in their 30s, the younger generation has readily surrendered to the idea of migration. But for them too, the reason is clearly not the charms of city life or the aspiration of earning better.
In October this year, 18-year-old Amarjeet Kumar, Yadav's neighbor, migrated to Bengaluru in Karnataka to work as a carpenter. His brother Ajay Kumar (31) has been migrating occasionally since 2012. "Earlier, I used to go for money but now it is a necessity. What are we left with without our Khets?,” asked Ajay rhetorically who grew sugarcane and paddy on 2.48 acres of land before it was swallowed by the Sharda.
Manoj Yadav (extreme left) sitting with fellow villagers to discuss issues of flooding, erosion and forced migration in Lakhimpur Khera. Aishwarya Tripathi/The Migration story
The uncertainty of the unknown is eating up everybody here. "I know fellow migrants who were beaten, robbed and left with nothing despite working hard to earn that money. It’s scary out there but we have to keep reminding ourselves that somebody back home is waiting for us and fight through,” said Ajay, breaking down. The migrants prefer to travel in groups to ensure safety, dependency and a sense of community.
It is not just landed farmers who are migrating for the first time but also marginal and landless farmers. In Ahirana village, about eight kilometers from Nayapurwa, Ravi Singh (25) and Akash Yadav (22) are small farmers owning land parcels of less than an acre. They did agricultural labour on larger farms to supplement their income. "When they don’t have lands left, we have no work here,” Ravi said. As a first, they too are tagging along the seasoned migrants who had come home for Diwali.
High stakes for those left behind
Yadav has not had the heart to discuss migration with his wife Suman Devi. In their 15 years of marriage, she has never lived away from her husband. "Admi te door reheb kehka neek laagat hai? (Who likes to stay away from their husband?),” she lamented.
She can't wrap her head around the idea that Sunil would visit them only once or twice a year. "But whatever I feel doesn’t matter, if he has to go to earn, he will,” she said. “Unless I have a secure job and a roof over my head there, I can’t take my daughter and wife along. They are rather safe here,” Yadav said.
Yadav's apprehensions are not without reason. In 2022, Bindu Devi (25) was forced to tag along with her husband Shiv Kumar (30) to Punjab when she was seven-months pregnant with her second child. She had found it difficult to fare through without her husband in the then ongoing floods after her home was eroded away.
Bindu Devi shows a copy of photographs of her eroded home with geographic coordinates as a proof for government compensation. Dharmendra Rajpoot/The Migration Story
But it didn’t come easy. "We reached the station at two o’clock in the morning and spent a day in the cowshed. Six months later, I started earning myself, with an infant in tow," said Bindu.
Bindu Devi showed The Migration Story the photo of her family outside her then home as a proof of geographical tagging of her eroded home for government compensation. The family had spent four lakhs to build a concrete home after saving up for eight years. They are back to a straw hut now. “Jab koi marta hai to jaisa dukh hota hai, waisa dukh hua tha (The pain was similar to the grief one feels when someone dies),” she said.
Compensation not in sight
Till now, Bindu has not got any compensation for her house that was swept away in 2022.
The Relief Commissioner's office gives Rs 1.2 lakh per family in case of an inundated pucca house, Rs 8,000 per hut, Rs 3,000 per animal shelter and Rs 47,000 for every 2.47 acres (1 hectare). This compensation is irrespective of the number of family members. The displaced families are allotted 0.3 acres on Gram Sabha land to construct a Kachcha house. However, the victim families have no legal right over it.
The Migration Story found rows of such temporary huts on embankments in Kheri. People also found the compensation unfair as in rural households, large joint families share the same house. This brings down the per head relief amount considerably.
The district administration is working on desilting of fields and dispensing compensation and has started taking flood control and anti-erosion measures for next year as well. However, Gram Panchayats are seeking Government support for capacity building and training in how to deal with a disaster like this.
Priyanshu and Ramji Dwivedi at the bank of river Sharda in Lakhimpur Khera, looking across to where Priyanshu once had a home. Aishwarya Tripathi/The Migration story
"Our Panchayat lost two out of six villages to erosion this year. The Gram Panchayat Development Plan has limited funds. All we could afford were two boats worth Rs 24,000 with that," said Pritam Yadav, Gram Pradhan of Kardahiya Manpur Panchayat in Lakhimpur. Pritam said he has repeatedly written to the district administration about erosion but received no concrete responses.
The Migration Story reached out to Lakhimpur Kheri District Magistrate Durga Shakti Nagpal to understand the climate resilience plans, but she did not respond until the publication of this story.
According to the Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA), 45 million people in India will be compelled to migrate by 2050 due to climate disasters, a threefold increase from the current scenario.
“These migrants will not have access to any social welfare scheme in another state, making them more vulnerable,” said Umi Daniel, Director, Migration & Education, Aide et Action International, an organisation working in Odisha.
“While the gains of migration are normally measured in financial terms, nobody keeps track of the social cost being paid by these people and their families. So many elderly, women and children are left behind, who is taking cognisance of them?” said Daniel.
Meanwhile, a red flag furls on the banks of the Sharda- a mark of community worship to the river to be less angry. Next to the flag, Priyanshu, Yadav's nephew, sits on a bicycle with his friend Ramji Dwivedi looking across the river. Ramji is happy that Priyanshu has shifted to this side of the river, closer to his home. But when asked about his home, Priyanshu points to a heap of rubble on the other side.
Edited by Ravleen Kaur
Aishwarya Tripathi is an independent journalist based out of Uttar Pradesh. She documents stories from rural India.
Dharmendra Rajpoot is an independent journalist who reports on human rights, energy transition and climate change. He is based out of Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh.
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