Let there be light: A girl prepares a rangoli in Guwahati on Thursday. Picture by UB Photos

Borjhar, Oct. 23: For Dhanada Das, who lost her paddy and cattle in last month’s deluge, this is a Diwali she would love to forget.

“There is no atmosphere of celebration. Only a trail of devastation and damaged paddy fields is evident. People are yet to come to terms with what happened. So how can we celebrate?” asked Dhanada, a widow from Dilinga, a village 8km from Boko.

Boko, in south Kamrup, is 60km from Guwahati.

Dhanada is not alone. There are hundreds of families in Boko who are in no mood for even a token celebration in the aftermath of one of the worst disasters.

The scene was different in earlier years. People, irrespective of caste and creed, have celebrated the festival in their own ways, be it lighting earthen lamps for a month from Kati Bihu or bursting crackers on Diwali. But the mood this year is just the opposite. “We customarily light earthen lamps in paddy fields for a month from Kati Bihu. But this time, we are heartbroken. There is no standing crop now. So, where do we light the lamps?” asked Dhanada again.

Sources in the state agriculture department said 29,972 hectares of crops have been damaged last month under Boko sub-division.

While the area of sali paddy damaged is 26,315 hectares, that of horticulture crops is 1,041 hectares. An area of 1,532 hectares used for the cultivation of vegetables was also damaged.

Worse still, Dhanada, who works as a cook at a lower primary school, has not got her salary (Rs 1,000) for the past three months.

“Earlier, we had faith in the positive outcome of religious deeds but now that seems to have eroded,” Dhanada, who lives with her 16-year-old daughter Karabi, said.

Dirima happens to be the worst-affected village in the area. The village houses 80 families and of them, 70 have lost their homes and paddy fields in the floods.

While a section of affected people is resigned to their fate, a few others are yet to come to terms with the devastation.

“My family has incurred a huge loss. Some electronic items have been damaged beyond repair. However, when compared to people in the interiors, the loss does not hurt that much,” Naba Sarma of Nabapur, 1km from Boko, said.

Ask him of the Diwali celebrations this year, and the answer is straightforward, “At best a token celebration, but nothing like before.”

Nayan Bora, Kamrup sub-divisional agriculture officer, (integrated pest management), said, “An amount of Rs 17.1 crore has been sanctioned from the state disaster relief fund for restoration of the paddy fields.”