A man rows his goat to safety on a makeshift boat in Bakri Haor

Sept. 8: Floods this year may cause, among other things, a mass change in profession in villages on the fringes of Bakri Haor (a large manmade lake) in Hailakandi.

Over 3,600 bigha of farmland, stretching to neighbouring Cachar, are under water, forcing some 30,000 farmers to consider taking up fishing to feed their families till the water recedes and the fields are ready for cultivation.

Every year, during the monsoon, when Barak, Katakhal and Dhaleswar breach their banks, Bakri Haor and its adjoining low-lying land are the first to be inundated.

This year, the rickety sluice gates gave way, causing water to spill onto the highlands as well.

With all hopes of raising a monsoon crop being drowned in the swirling waters, the farmers now have to bank on the high-yielding sali seeds for a winter crop.

But that would be another three months away, and veterans like Ishak Ali Mazumdar, a 60-year-old farmer near Bakri Haor, know that with no money to buy seeds or even equipment, peasants will have to bank on uncertain government sanctions to begin cultivation again.

The post-flood phase in Barak Valley is a story of debt and poverty with the impoverished farmers finding it difficult to wait for government funds.

While moneylenders make hay, peasants get trapped in a perennial cycle of debt.

So this year, Mazumdar and many others like him, have decided to try their hand at fishing in the Bakri Haor waters till their lands are fit for farming. Gopal Bhowmik, the district fisheries officer, in Hailakandi, admitted it would help to get additional hands in pisciculture projects but failed to provide any concrete numbers regarding how many were likely to get employment.

Fish from Bakri dominate markets in Silchar, Karimganj and Hailakandi. Nearly 50,000 farmers from Janakibazar, Chiparsangam, Anukul Nagar, Daspara and Pakabari areas have been queuing up temporary jobs in fisheries.

But the department is yet to come up with a feasible scheme or even an estimate of how many it is likely to employ, if at all.

The seasoned fishermen of the area, too, would be unwilling to allow a dent in their share of carp, tengra, koi, magur, katla and mrigel.

Till the government finds a way out, amateur fishermen will trade their scythes for nets and hope the fisheries chart out a plan soon.