The bank of the Ganga in Bhutni where the river has been advancing steadily. Picture by Surajit Roy

Malda, July 28: People living on Bhutni island on the Ganga are facing a dilemma: whether to allow the river to breach the embankment and bring in silt that will enrich the soil, or ask the irrigation department to take steps to stop the flooding.

“If the rising waters of the river breach the embankment and deposit the silt, we will have a green revolution on the island,” a farmer said.

The pradhan of the Hiranandapur gram panchayat, Subes Mondol, agreed with the farmer, but also spoke of the flip side. “If the embankment crumbles, the people here will suffer for a couple of months. But after that the harvests will bring smiles to their faces,” the pradhan said.

The embankment goes right around the island. “If too much water enters, we can take shelter on top of the embankment, which is 10-12ft wide,” the farmer said.

However, the irrigation department is worried about the state of affairs. Three villages on the island — Bagdogra, Balutola and Kesubpur — are under threat as the Ganga inches closer to the embankment.

The executive engineer of the irrigation department, Soumen Mishra, said the distance between the river and the embankment was just over 100 metres.

“In the past 15 days the river has advanced about 50 metres,” Mishra said. Across the river from the island is Manikchak, located around 40km from Malda town.

Mishra, who had been to Bhutni yesterday, said the district administration had been told about the threat the Ganga posed to the embankment on the island. “We have decided to take up some emergency measures to protect the embankment and have asked for Rs 1.5 crore from the state government for this purpose,” the executive engineer said.

Sources in the district administration said the tussle between the Bengal irrigation department and the Farakka Barrage authorities over the responsibility of anti-erosion work had compounded the problem. “This has been going on for two years now,” a senior official in the district administration said.

The Barrage authorities have made it clear that they would not take any responsibility for Bhutni. “The work to protect the embankment is now ours. But it is already well into the rainy season, which will hinder the progress of the project,” Mishra said.