Erosion activity on Majuli - the largest river island of the world

摘要

Majuli, a river island within the two arms of the mighty Brahmaputra river, is a site having extreme historical and cultural importance, and warrants immediate exposure to the scientific community. The island faces an acute erosion problem as no permanent anti-erosion measures based on proper geohydrological models have been adopted so far. The land area of the island, as evidenced from the IRS satellite imagery of 1998, is 577.65 km(2) compared to 1245 km(2) according to available historical records. The available data indicate an erosion rate of 1.9 km(2)/yr for the period of 1920-98. If the situation remains unattended, the island will soon be engulfed by the Brahmapntra river and will become extinct from the world map.