The Assam government on September 16 recruited 768 doctors for rural postings. “Assam is the country’s first state to have carried out such a historic recruitment drive,” said health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma after handing over appointment letters to the doctors in Guwahati. The move, Sarma said, is to ensure that every panchayat has at least one doctor.

The recruitment drive was part of the state government legislation, enforced in 2002, that makes it mandatory for all mbbs graduates to serve for a minimum of one year in rural health centres following their internship. Students sign the bond at the time of admission. “Without rural posting, medical graduates will not be eligible for higher studies,” said Sharma. Those flouting it will have to pay the government a compensation of Rs 5 lakh; this is the estimated amount that the state spends on the education of a single student. They will also be barred from practising in government as well as private hospitals, he said.

Though reluctant earlier, young doctors are now showing willingness to work in villages. “About 1,500 applications from fresh medical graduates are pending with us. All of them will be inducted for rural posting,” said J B Ekka, director of the National Rural Health Mission of Assam. “They will be posted at public health centres and dispensaries.”

In return, the health department has set aside lucrative offers. “Those serving in accessible rural areas would get two bonus marks and those who serve in remote and difficult areas would be awarded three bonus marks in the post-graduate examination,” said Sharma. Moreover, question papers in the post-graduate examination will be set in a way to benefit those who have served in rural areas. They will receive a monthly salary of Rs 25,000 (medical graduate posted in city government hospitals get Rs 12,500 a month) along with free residential accommodation in the area of posting. “The offer is good. Moreover, we are getting inducted in the government service right after graduation,” said Kulesh Patir, a medical graduate. He is posted in Dholabari panchayat in Kokrajhar district.

The state’s three medical colleges at Guwahati, Dibrugarh and Silchar produce 450 mbbs doctors annually.

Health officials in Assam said the disease has taken the form of an epidemic in Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Jorhat, Sibsagar, Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts, affecting nearly a thousand people.

The state health department has put the death toll at less than 75, but unofficial reports say over 100 people have died of encephalitis in upper Assam.

“The situation is bad, with no specific drugs available for treating the disease. The treatment is only supportive,” director of the state health department Dhruba Hojai said. “We have alerted health officials across the state to take preventive measures to stop Japanese encephalitis from spreading.”

The disease is transmitted from pigs through mosquitoes and strikes between April and September. It causes inflammation of the brain tissue, resulting in high fever, headache, rigidity of the neck, difficulty in speaking and twitching.

On August 25, Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma said the government will import encephalitis vaccine from China. A third of the state population has been vaccinated, said the minister quoting a unicef report.

“All the landowners have told the government it can go ahead with the pre-project development works,” the chief minister said. “The government at this stage is only concentrating on development,” said deputy chief minister Bindo Lanong who holds the mining portfolio. ucil plans to spend Rs 209 crore on healthcare facilities, power plant, drinking water, road development and educational institutions.

The state government decision follows the clearance given by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests to ucil’s proposed mines and processing plant two years ago.

Citizens groups called the development works bribes. “The Centre should stop this appeasement policy and realize that no amount of financial package will mitigate the health hazards of uranium mining,” said Samuel Jyrwa, president of the influential Khasi Students’ Union.

H S Lyngdoh, former state home minister and president of the Hill State People’s Democratic Party, said, “We’ll oppose the projects as there is no proof that radiation effects can be contained.”

Meghalaya is the third richest uranium reserves in the country next to Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh. The Atomic Minerals Directorate of Department of Atomic Energy had estimated Meghalaya’s uranium reserves at 13,500 tonnes in 1991-92. ucil had tried to mine uranium in the Khasi hills in 1990 but had to abandon plan due to violent protests by citizens groups. The estimated cost of the mining project increased from Rs 300 crore to Rs 825 crore between 1990 and now.

Singha is not alone. More than 150,000 people have started returning home from 50 relief camps in Udalguri and Darrang districts. Over 90 per cent of them are farmers and most do not want to go back to their fields. “The thought of the riots is unbearable. Our grain stock was destroyed and whatever we had cultivated till October was burnt,” said Subal Biswas of Rowta Bagan village in Udalguri district. “Now I don’t have the mental strength to go and cultivate.”, says Biswas.

The riots had broken out between the Bodo tribe and Bangladeshi immigrants in Udalguri over a trifle matter of stealing poultry birds and spread to neighbouring Darrang district. Several villages were burnt.

A sense of insecurity had been building among Bodo tribals because of immigrants settling in their area over the years. Udalguri district has the sixth schedule status, so no one except Bodo tribals can buy property there.

Many Bodo and migrant farmers are scared that working close to each other can reignite the hostilities. They say working as a labourer in towns could be a better option. “I won’t risk my life farming. I would prefer some other work,” said Javed Ali, a migrant farmer who has returned to Laoduar village where his house once existed from a relief camp at Besimari village in Darrang.

In some villages in Udalguri the movement of people in groups is still restricted.

Guna Daimary, a Bodo farmer of Ikrabari village in Darrang, said he has not been to his fields since October. “Last time I saw my field ripe paddy was standing in it. Then riots broke out,” said Daimary.

Vegetable crunch

Riots kept farmers away from their fields since October, affecting crop production, said Akhil Gogoi of the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, an organization of farmer-activists. “This is one of the major factors behind the steep rise in vegetables’ prices in Assam this year,” he added.

Prices of vegetables and food grains have gone up by almost 50 per cent in the state this year.

Besemari in Udalguri is the largest wholesale vegetable market in Assam. It supplies vegetables across Assam. Hanif Ali, a wholesale dealer at the market, earns Rs 1,000 per truck of vegetables supplied. But this year the supply of vegetables from farmers has dropped drastically. “Earlier, we used to send several truckloads of vegetables every day but this year we can manage a maximum of two truckloads,” he said.

Udalguri and Darrang districts account for a tenth of the total vegetable production in Assam, according to data of the state agriculture department. The two districts have over 300,000 hectares of cultivable land and over 280,000 farmers and agriculture labourers.

“Although no study has been done, last year’s riots have affected crop production,” said R K Doley, district agriculture officer in Udalguri. Officials in Darrang share his view. “Over one lakh farmers did not go to their fields for almost one year. It will definitely have a big impact on the state of agriculture in Assam,” said Khagen Sharma, an agriculture development officer at the agriculture department in Darrang.

Officials of the Assam Agriculture Department acknowledge the price rise but blame it on poor marketing facility. “We have had good vegetable produce in lower Assam. But in the absence of marketing facilities prices are not uniformly distributed,” said Mawsam Hazarika, a senior agriculture development officer at the department. He cited the example of Kamrup district. “It is three hours’ drive from Barpeta district, but the price of vegetables is almost thrice in Kamrup compared to the price in Barpeta,” explained Hazarika.

Three north-east states—Assam, Manipur and Nagaland— were declared drought hit between June-end and July following deficit monsoon rainfall. In Assam, four districts were hit by flash floods that affected three lakh people; the remaining 23 districts reeled under drought.

Large parts of Lakhimpur, Sibsagar, Bongaigaon and Dhubri districts were submerged. Lakhimpur where 200 villages were inundated was the worst affected. “These were not natural floods caused by monsoon rains. Excess water was released from the hydropower reservoirs in the adjoining hill state of Arunachal Pradesh,” said Keshab Chatradhara, activist with People’s Movement for Subansiri and Brahmaputra Valley. The rivers Ranganadi and Brahmaputra breached their weak embankments and flooded adjoining areas.

The drought, meanwhile, has severely affected crop production in Assam. Pramila Rani Brahma, Assam’s state agriculture minister said 13 lakh hectares of cropland in the state is affected. “Only 50 per cent of the 3.9 million tonnes of rice needed to meet the demand in the state could be produced this year,” the minister said. She said Rs 119 crore would be spent on installing 50,000 pump sets in all the districts to pump groundwater.

In neighbouring Nagaland, low rains have affected 15 per cent of jhum cultivation (a type of cultivation where land is cleared by burning patches of forestland for cultivation) and 25 per cent wet rice cultivation in terraced fields. State chief minister Neiphiu Rio has sought assistance from the central government to deal with drought caused by lowest rainfall recorded in five years (see box).

Manipur chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh has his own contingency plan. He announced a special fund of Rs. 4.41 crore to the state agriculture and irrigation department. From this special nurseries for paddy plants would be set up on 1,000 hectares of land at a cost of Rs. 2.7 crore. The rest 1.5 crore has been given to the state irrigation department to purchase 300 water pump sets of 7 and 5 horse power. But farmers in the state are far from happy. They said there was no point in sowing paddy now as the time for it is over. They complained that only a few water pump sets were distributed in each assembly constituency.

Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have not been declared drought hit. Government officials in these states were hopeful the situation would improve soon. “We have started receiving some rainfall in the last few weeks and the situation should get better,” said V.S. Oberoi, principal secretary, environment and forest department of Meghalaya.

Meteorologists said the drought is the result of weak monsoons.

Right now the monoon trough is extending over Jammu to Bay of Bengal over parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar”, says Debakanta Handique, director of regional meteorological centre, Guwahati.

“There is also a second monsoon trough that is extending over Bihar to the North eastern states, it will bring some rain in the North East”, says Debakanta Handique.

Weak monsoon

State                            rainfall deficit (in percentage)

Assam                            31

Arunachal Pradesh         35

Manipur                          38

Mizoram                         36

Nagaland                         37.15

Tripura                            21

Meghalaya                       75  

Lalit Saikia, a Phd scholar at the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, a premier engineering institute in India is currently doing a study on the rainfall trend in the North East region of India.

For this he has selected 2 stations of IMD, Guwahati and Dibrugarh in Assam. “Monthly minimum and maximum temperatures from 1951 to 2000 at Guwahati Airport station and from 1952 to 2000 at Dibrugarh Airport station were analyzed”, says Saikia.

“It was observed that both annual mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures are in increasing trend at both stations. Increase of minimum temperature was found to be more prominent. A decrease in annual rainfall throughout the period was observed in both the two stations”, says Saikia.

“Analysis of rainfall amount during different seasons indicates decreasing trend in the monsoon (June-August) and increasing trend during the pre-monsoon (March-May) and post-monsoon months (September-November)”, says Saikia. “Although data from two stations are limited for a vast and geographically diverse region like the Brahmaputra basin, the results underline the need for wider research to understand and predict the extent of climate change impacts in the region” adds Saikia.

The reservoir was noticed by soldiers of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police in mid-April. They alerted the Arunachal Pradesh administration. The mud wall, blocking the river, is said to be 49 metres thick.

A breach in it will affect Siang district in Arunachal and Dhemaji district in Assam, said Keshab Chhatradhara of People’s Movement for the Subansiri and Brahmaputra, fighting construction of mega dams in the region.

Government officials said the landslide in Namcha Bawra mountain might have occurred in December 2008. “On December 21, the water level in the Siang (as the river is known in Arunachal) dipped from 1.84 metre to 1.80 metre in Tuting sub-divisional area close to the border,” said Onit Panyang, deputy commissioner of East Siang district. The water resources department is monitoring the level of the river and people have been alerted, he said.

While officials said the reservoir would not cause any major damage, Chhatradhara said people fear a repeat of the 2000 flash floods that had displaced 2,000 families in 13 villages. None of the families got government aid, he said. The frequency of floods due to landslide-induced dam outbursts and sudden discharge of water from glacial lakes formed by glacial melt will rise as the globe warms, said Partha Jyoti Das of Aranyak, a non-profit studying climate-induced hazards in northeast India. B P Duorah, who teaches geology in Guwahati University, explained the severe earthquake in 1950 had destabilized the steep mountains. “Formation of the reservoir is linked to loose sediments in eastern Himalaya,” he said.

Assam’s disaster management cell seems to be the least informed department. “We are aware of the issue from newspaper reports. In case of emergency, we will act immediately,” S R Islam, deputy secretary of the disaster management authority said.

“It was more of a chain reaction—the dry spell gave rise to dusty conditions and finally to dust storms,” said Deba Kanta Handique, director of the Regional Meteorological Centre in Guwahati. Many like Dulal Goswami, professor at the environment department of Guwahati University, believe local factors like reckless hill cutting, deforestation, destruction of wetlands and unplanned urbanization also contributed to dust storms.

Nine days later there was an action replay. Dust-laden winds, travelling at 65-70 km/hr, swept the city and four flights had to be diverted from the airport, where over 40 aircraft land and take off every day. This is the first time planes could not land at the airport due to dust storms, though high velocity winds have hit the city before, said Subhash Chandra Sharma, regional executive director, northeast, Airport Authority of India.

The dust storms followed a dry spell in Guwahati since November. In January there was no rainfall in Guwahati. In February too it was nil. Normally, it should have received 11.4 mm rainfall in January and 12.8 mm in February, according to the India Meteorological Department (

Meteorologists blames the western disturbance for the dry spell and says it deviated from its usual route. The western disturbance is an extratropical storm originating in the Mediterranean sea that brings winter rain and snow to North Western parts of the Indian sub continent.

Between November to May, the western disturbance enters India through Iran, Afghanistan & Pakistan & move eastwards across northern India & Assam; it is usually in the form of cloudy weather and light rainfall. The western disturbance caused rainfall in Northern India in the first week of January which is the normal period for rainfall.

“Once it entered India, the western disturbance affected Jammu and Kashmir and there was rainfall in Jammu and Kashmir, after that it moved over China and then touched Arunachal Pradesh to some extent; it should have affected Assam in the end of February -March but as it had deviated from its route, didn’t deliver rain in the North East at the right time”, says Handique.

The dry weather has also meant more forest fires in the region and a loss of crops.

According to the chief conservator of forests in Mizoram, R C Thanga, an unprecedented over a thousand instances of forest fire have been reported from across the state by mid-April this year. He blamed both jhum (slash and burn) cultivation and the dry spell for the fires.

A forest fire in Sesawng village in Thingsulthliah block of Aizawl district killed a 45-year-old woman and her 10-year-old daughter on March 10. Two youths were killed when trying to douse fire in the reserve forest around Serkhan village of Tlangnuam block in Kolasib district. Nagaland also witnessed numerous forest fires in March.imd. Rain towards the end of March provided some respite to the parched state, but arrived too late for farmers.

Tough to till

Assam farmers cultivating rabi crops and summer paddy, boro, sown in December, have suffered terribly due to the dry spell. Of 2.6 million hectares (ha) of cultivable land in Assam, summer paddy and rabi crops are cultivated in 0.4 million ha. Kaki village of Nagaon district, which is among the highest producers of winter paddy in the state, is feeling the impact. Farmers are investing over Rs 1,400 on diesel to irrigate a bigha (0.13 ha) with motor pumps. Earlier, the maximum they had to spend on diesel was Rs 800 for a bigha.