Panchanandapur and all its land were always on the left (northern) bank of Ganga, part of West Bengal. For the last thirty years Ganga has eroded this northern bank ands shifted its course towards West Bengal, away from Jharkhand. So farmland originally in West Bengal has collapsed and been swallowed up by the river. Thirty, twenty, even as little as ten years later, the river having shifted yet further north into West Bengal, the farmland and even buildings that had disappeared into Ganga, start re-emerging, only this time on the southern side of the river. The villagers of Panchanandapur set out across Ganga to reclaim their farmland and start farming it again. But is the new ‘old’ land in West Bengal in Jharkhand or in a legal no-man’s land? The owners want to vote in West Bengal state elections. The government in Kolkata refuses.
Maps:
Ganga in Bihar
Farakka
Farakka insert
Side texts:
Being Stateless
Maldah
Hugli
Indo-Bangladesh
Treaty
 |
©,
2007 Independent Broadcasting Associates, Inc |
 |