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| Road toward Narenguri |
Narenguri (nareng= citrus fruits,) name suggests the existence of a place where probably the abundant amount of such fruits are grown or found. But in reality now is a barren tract land within the cradle of Beki with little or no permanent vegetation as the fate being decided and shaped by the mighty and totally unpredictable Beki River carved out the build and destroyed up merged and submerged accordingly to her needs and will changing its course almost every summer. A true pencil scribbles of nature as we may say so.
As we say the name it brings a question to our mind why how and when..???? Yes and that brings us to that point to see what's where. Manas-Beki have innumerable such type of stories untold and the story of Narenguri is just a glimpse of the strength in fact wrath of Nature. The village falls just at the southern boundary of MNP and it is now a full-fledged island city off through the land from all sides by river Beki. Full of sand and boulders, and in an average of 3 months submerged in most parts of the island under the arms of Beki each year. Heavy siltation every year leads to a barren land devoid of vegetation.
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| Villagers Livelihood |
However, history traces back to a century ago. This fallow area was as prosperous as a healthy fertile and productive cropping land and the mainstream, a much smaller rivulet. And the water used for feeding the rich fields with very higher yield in comparison to nearby areas. One elderly man who claims to be in the same village for a very long period of time recalls about a time when almost every part of the village was part of the mainland with community halls LP school and permanent settlement. The mystery of the misery of the Narenguri evolved from the mid-1950s when the frequency and magnitude of water flow gradually grew in the rivulet due to siltation in its previous course. Finally, a time came when in 1972 to check the advance of the river to inner land, an embankment was erected at the eastern end of a stretch of about 1 km. Finally in 1994, with resistance on the east the river charged it's full strength towards the fields of the Narenguri which was a massive flood and almost major part being submerged keeping nothing in favour of the poor tribals. Finding it a fragile zone for habitation, almost 80℅ of the original village shifted to other places and making an opportunity for the present settler. In this little place however the riparian origin population survived on cattle rearing logging and quarrying claiming a part of the submerged areas to be their own with everything washed ashore being their property.
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| Country Boat is only communication for villagers |
Now the only way of communication is the country boats with population around 150 at 22 households mostly dependent on what they can savage from river or manage from the PA. However they claim that it was in 2004 when the entire scenario changed more drastically with river flood being regular event of the area and they have devised many ways to deal with it but survive in this fragile environmental conditions. The older population claimed to have observed how houses school community prayer halls being eaten up each year leaving nothing but memories to bring tears recollecting the good old days. However they have compromised to the situation
(Story was prepared with support of Suchanta Kashyap)
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