Assessing Multi-Decadal Landmass Changes and River Bank Erosion in the Char Areas of Majuli River Island of Assam, India
Tikendrajit Saikia
Department of Soil Science, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam, India.
Mriganko Kakoti
*
Department of Agricultural Meteorology, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam, India.
Jahnabi Hazarika
Department of Soil Science, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam, India.
Tilak Prasad Panika
Department of Soil Science, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam, India.
Aditya Bezbaruah
Department of Agriculture, Govt. of Assam, India.
Salman Ahmed Choudhury
Department of Agriculture, Govt. of Assam, India.
Priyanuz Goswami
OPIU, APART, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Majuli, the biggest populated river island, which is bordered to the north by the Subansiri River and to the south by the powerful Brahmaputra River. Since ancient times, the island has been continuously eroding, which is cause for serious concern. The current method uses Remote Sensing (RS) satellite imagery covering the years 1976 to 2024 and Survey of India (SOI) toposheets to study the erosion–deposition processes in a Geographic Information System (GIS) environment. The observation has revealed a dramatic change in reduction of land area of the Majuli Island. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the long-term changes in landmass and erosion patterns in the char areas of Majuli Island, highlighting both the environmental challenges and the socio-economic implications for local communities. It is evident that the erosion rate on the island mass was significantly higher than that of the depositional processes.
Keywords: Char areas, Erosion, GIS, Remote sensing