A river disappears from map

A house in Sabuj Para area constructed on encroached Bamondanga river in Nilphamari town. PHOTO: STAR

In land office documents, the riverbed is shown as privately owned high land.

History says, once trade centre Shakhamacha Bandar that flourished on the bank of Bamondanga is the present day Nilphamari town.

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Today, the Bamondanga river is a narrow drain or small water bodies at places.

Encroachment of the river began in mid-Sixties during Pakistani period. The then Muslim League leader and president of a local Union Council first grabbed a large portion of the river to extend his homestead.

This started a feast on government land, stretching 7-8 kilometres along the riverbank and its bed. Rice mills, jute pressing units, tobacco leaf godowns and other commercial installations and a host of residential buildings sprang up one after another on grabbed lands.

Recently, some influential quarters occupied a large portion of the remaining river in Baroipara and Sabujpara areas in the town. They have dumped earth and sandbags, blocking flow of water through Anondo Babu bridge on Nilphamari-Jaldhaka road and at Manik More bridge on Nilphamari-Ramganj road.

About half of the town will be inundated in the coming rainy season, local residents claimed while talking to this correspondent.

But all the land grabbers claim themselves to be 'legal owners' of lands they occupied in the riverbed. They say they have purchase deeds, mutation certificates and documents of the latest land survey and record.

Interesting things were revealed during an investigation about the river at the local land office. There is no sign of this river in the State Acquisition Map (SA Map) drawn in 1962.

But the Cadestral Survey Map (CS map) drawn in 1940 shows the river clearly. The CA map is not available with the people.

There are still some practical evidence of the existence of the river. Nine old bridges built on the river are still there, testifying its course along the town.

There is also a brief description of the river in a book titled Nilphamarir Itihash (history of Nilphamari), written by Nasiruddin.

Uttom Kumar Singh, Assistant Land Officer at the municipal office said he never heard the name of Bamondanga river.

Municipal Chairman Kamal Ahamed however admitted that the river has been grabbed by influentials over the years and expressed his inability to recover it as the municipality has no police force and magistracy power.

Nilphamari Deputy Commissioner Robindranath Roy Choudhury said legal action would be taken against the grabbers after investigation.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) Nitai Pada Saha said recovery of the river would be a complicated and difficult job.

He said he had directed officials to cancel holding numbers of structures erected on the grabbed riverbed.