Brahmaputra in India

Floods and their disastrous impact on the bankline plains adjoining the rivers and on the drainage channels have vexed effect on civilization since time immemorial and constitutes one of the major natural calamities faced by India almost every year resulting in the substantial loss of life , large scale damage to property, disruption of community lifelines, besides entailing untold misery to the millions.

The North Eastern Region of India comprising the states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur Mizuram, Tripura and Nagaland is a huge sprawling land mass made up of extensive countless hills and mountainous terrain that rises in the north to the snow caped heights of the Himalaya and is the playground of the mighty river Brahmaputra regarded as one of the largest rivers of the world with its tributaries. This region accounts for nearly40% of the total water resources of the country and this bounty of natural resources is still unharnessed. The tentative assessment of this dynamic resource in the North Eastern part of India is about 60 million hectare meters. The flood scenario of the Assam state and the ravages brought by the recurrent flood havoc created by the mighty Brahmaputra and Borak river system is the major deterrent to the development of this region. For Assam the Brahmaputra and the Borak rivers represent the very essence of the life of its people as rivers which contain so much of promise and which can yield such rich dividends if only we can properly plan and utilize its potentials.

Complete immunity from flood or absolute ‘Flood Control’ is utopian in concept and economically not viable. The concept of flood management aims at taking such planned measures as it will ensure profitable and economic utilization of the flood plains and the water resources for the benefit of the mankind, while simultaneously ensuring that during the periods of high flood there is no severe damage to the extent possible.

The Assam plains benefit and suffer from the dominant Brahmaputra River, classified as one of the mightiest and most complex rivers in the world. Even though it ranks only 22^nd in terms of basin size, it ranks fourth in terms of average annual discharge, placing it amongst the highest in the world in terms of discharge per unit area. On top, it ranks second in terms of sediment load. Among all major rivers, the lower Brahmaputra flows not only through some of the densest populated area but also through the poorest regions of the world. The fertile flood plains of the river which develop agriculture produce with abundance of water to feed its people.