A portion of Antiler Khaal and (right) villagers have built their homes on the dried up canal bed in Bagberia. Pictures by Gopal Senapati

The plight of the villagers in Bagnan Block II along Antiler Khaal, a canal that connected the Damodar and the Roopnarayan, is similar to that of the fictitious fisherfolks of Brahmanberia of Bangladesh. In Advaita Malla Burman’s novel, Titash Ekti Nadir Naam, that was turned into a critically acclaimed eponymous film by Ritwik Ghatak, the fisherfolks of Brahmanberia lost their livelihoods once the Titash dried up.

Antiler Khaal, a six kilometer long and 45 meter wide canal, also dried up gradually in the last three-and-half decades. The canal used to irrigate scores of agricultural land on both sides of its bank providing livelihood to more than a lakh people. There were sluice gates on both the Damodar and Roopnarayan ends of the canal through which water from both the rivers flowed into the canal during high tide. Besides, there were a number of sluice gates on the banks of the canal for proper distribution of water for the farmers to grow paddy during the dry season. When the canal dried up, the farmers lost their boro cultivation and incomes dwindled.

Hundreds of people living on the banks of the canal also eked out a living by fishing. “I still remember I went out fishing in the canal along with my grand-father in a small country boat. At the end of the day, we had enough catch that would fetch two square meals for our family,” said Kalipada Mandal, 82, a resident of Kulitapara village under Chandrabhag gram panchayat. He said that a large number of fish from the Roopnarayan and Damodar entered the canal through sluice gates. Mandal had to eke out a living driving a van after the canal dried up. According to him and his neighbours, till the late seventies, the canal, known in government records as the ‘Medinipur No 7 Ridge Canal’, had enough water for fishermen to fish and farmers to irrigate their boro crop. People living on either bank of the canal would visit each other in country boats. Today, these villagers hope to regain their livelihoods with the ruling government deciding to revive the canal.

A wooden bridge across the canal connecting Birkul and Bagberia

A pond has been dug on the dry bed of the canal encroached upon by villagers

A sluice gate that was once operational

Antiler Khaal started drying up after the devastating floods in 1978 when breaches developed in several places along the bank and sluice gates were broken. “The 1978 flood sounded the death knell for the canal. Breaches developed on the banks and sluice gates were broken by the floodwater. Though new sluice gates were installed, the bunds were so badly damaged that they could not be repaired. Water from Roopnarayan and Damodar could not be held in the canal in the absence of bunds,” said Asit Samanta, a farmer of Birkul village under Bantul-Baidyanathpur gram panchayat.

Till 1977, the sluice gates were kept open to allow water into the canal from Roopnarayan and Damodar during high tide. After the canal filled up, the sluice gates were shut so that water did not flow back during low tide. After breaches developed on the banks of the canal in the aftermath of the 1978 floods, water entered into the canal from the rivers and gushed out through the breaches and started flooding agricultural land in the monsoon. And in other seasons, water from the rivers flowed into the canal during high tide and flowed back on its own during low tide. “Siltation on the mouth of Damodar and the changing course of the Roopnarayan from Howrah to East Midnapore nearly two decades ago are some of the reasons why the canal dried up,” said a resident of Bagberia.

Nearly two decades ago, Howrah Zilla Parisad took up a plan to renovate the canal but due to lack of adequate funds, the plan had to be shelved. “It was decided then that the six kilometer canal would be desilted, breaches on the banks would be repaired and high yielding Keralian coconut trees would be planted on both sides of the canal. But the plan could not be implemented for lack of funds,” said Durjay Mukherjee, former panchayat samity member from Bagnan Block II.

Talks of reviving the canal started again after the present government decided to allocate funds for it to improve the irrigation in the agricultural land in the vast areas of Bagnan Block II.

A few months back, irrigation minister Rajib Banerjee declared that the canal would be renovated. “The renovation of the canal will help the farmers. They will get adequate water for boro cultivation. There will be no dearth of funds for the project,” promised Banerjee.

Digging and desiltation of the canal has already started in some parts but the pace of work is very slow due to encroachment in vast stretches of the canal, which is now less than 10 meters in width. There are scores of houses on the entire stretch of the canal and some of them are pucca houses. Besides, there are playgrounds, flower gardens, ponds that have come up on the dried canal bed in the last four decades. Electric poles of the State Electricity Board have also been put up.

An officer of Bagnan Block II Panchayat Samity admitted that removing encroachment would be a difficult task for the administration as, he feared, the opposition parties could oppose eviction for narrow political interests. “The renovation work had to be stopped after the panchayat election was declared. Now that the elections are over, work will restart soon,” said Debojit Bose, BDO, Bagnan Block II.