Staff Correspondent:

Once the river was the life line of business as sailing ships and boats were busy moving from one place to another to reach essential goods to their destinations on the water routes. But, now the vast riverbeds dried up making them into crops field.

This is the condition of the Bhakti River, like 12 others crisscrossed the northern district, now completely disappeared from the map in the last 50 years.

Any elder citizen can recollect the memories of famous folk singer Abbas Uddin as he sung ‘ke jai re bhatir gaan gaiya’ or Abdul Alim’s melodious song ‘nayer badam tuila dere’ on a sailing boat on the rivers. But now those rivers ruined into desert.

Recently, Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) has listed the rivers of the district when they found no existence of 13 rivers.

Executive Engineer of WDB Thakurgaon Golam Zakaria said only 14 rivers have their existence and 13 others dried bodily. Proposals would be sent to the ministry for de-encroachment and dredging of the rivers, he said.

According to BWDB, the lost rivers are- Russia, Haturi, Jolai, Punarbhaba, Mara Gogra, Charal Band, Nahna, Aman-Dhaman, Kahalai, Bagmara, Sardubi, Maratangan and Bhakti.

Most of those rivers dried up. They are now crop fields. A narrow stream of some rivers in some places only tells that there was once a river there, WDB officials said.

Once lively waterway, bustling with movement of launches, trawlers dawn to dusk, fishermen’s business with catching fishes and lively life of towns across the river are now just a memory.

Locals say that once the rivers were abandoned with various species of fishes and local fishermen maintained their livelihood from the rivers. With the death of the rivers, they have lost their occupation, mostly switching to another profession.

Local farmer Ali, 61 of Bhelajan Mahajanpara recalled his memories saying- Due to poor navigation, movement of ships closed down gradually and people used to cross the river by boat. At that time there was plenty of fishes in the rivers.

“When I was a child, I heard from my father that movement of big launches in the Bhakti River was very common. Fishing was also a common profession of locals. But, now it’s gone to oblivion,” he said.

The 15-kilometer-long Sardubi River, which originates in the neighboring areas of Shukhanpukuri and Balia Unions, is almost dead on Saturday.

Shafiuzzaman, the administrative assistant of Paubor Sadar Upazila, said people engrossed the most of the land of the Sardubi River for cultivation while a small canal carries the sign of the river.

Khaleda Begum, 58, a local resident said they used to wash clothes in the river and used to cook with its water. Now local influentials are cultivating crops in the river areas.

The Kahalai River in Pirganj Upazila also mostly dried up. Sharafat Hossain, an employee of WDB in Pirganj, said almost 75 percent area of river is now being used for cultivation.

The Joli River in Hajipur Union of Pirganj upazila has been abolished from the map. Local resident Shahabuddin, 60, said, once it was a river fo strong current. Surrounding area was fertile due to the flow of the river. The picturesque river banks were very nice to look with many big trees across the banks under which people used to come for leisure. Now, as the river dried up, all the big trees have also fallen.

Advocate Zahid Iqbal, who also works with local environmental issues, hold inertia of local authorities responsible for wrong river management, illegal encroachment and pollution.

Thakurgaon educationist Professor Abu Bakkar Siddique said, for a long time, the rivers turned into barren land after losing their navigability. And taking this opportunity, unscrupulous people grabbed the lands, drying up the existence of many rivers from the map.

Thakurgaon Land Settlement Officer Abu Taleb said there are records of rivers in the CS, SA and RS records, but physically there is no existence of the rivers.

Terming the recovery of the encroached lands of rivers as a tough task, WDB engineer Moydul Islam Roni said the course of the rivers have changed at different times. People built structures on most of the rivers which could not be removed without strict measures of the authorities.

Thakurgaon Deputy Commissioner Ishrat Farzana said recovery of the rivers is very important to save the nature and environment of the region. All measures will be taken for revival of the rivers, she said.