A group of people are cutting and taking away the sunken paddy of other people’s land in Howar of Sunamganj
Photo Collected
The deep part of the haors of Sunamganj is now overflowing with rain and mountain runoff. The rice of many farmers’ land is submerged under that water. Somewhere the boundaries of the land are no longer recognizable. On this occasion, a group of people are taking a boat and taking the rice of others who have sunk indiscriminately.
The incident took place in Baram Haor of Dirai Upazila of Sunamganj last Monday and yesterday Tuesday. When the local residents informed the police, the police went to Hawar yesterday afternoon. People involved in paddy harvesting fled from there after being informed about the presence of the police. Later, the police warned everyone that no one should cut other people’s rice except their own land.
বিজ্ঞাপন
According to local residents, Baram Haor is one of the big paddy haors of Dirai Upazila. Part of it has also fallen in Shalla upazila. Recently, due to heavy rains and uphill landslides, paddy fields of many lands in Banggadhar and Diyargaon parts of Dirai Upazila of Haor were washed away. People were busy with cutting and threshing the rice in the upper part so they could not cut the rice in the lower part.
Two local farmers said that picking up submerged paddy is a very risky and laborious task. This requires boats and additional workers. Paddy has to be cut by diving somewhere. Many farmers therefore no longer harvest the submerged rice. Others try. In the local language, cutting the sunken paddy is called ‘Aki Dewa’.
বিজ্ঞাপন
Now that the water of Haor has started to decrease a little, some people of some nearby villages have been going to Haor with boats for two days to cut the submerged paddy. According to the local people, they are taking 10 to 15 boats to cut the paddy under the water. The local people refused to comply but the matter was reported to the police.
Police said some people fled on sensing their presence. Others claimed that they were harvesting rice from their own land. However, knowing which land belongs to which land has become the biggest problem due to the submergence of land boundaries.
Regarding the allegation of cutting paddy from other people’s land in Howar, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Dirai Police Station Enamul Haque Chowdhury told Prothom Alo, “The police went to the spot after receiving the news. Everyone has been warned to harvest rice from their own land and not to go to other people’s land in any way. Strict action will be taken if anyone deliberately tries to cut the paddy of another’s land.
According to the sources of the agriculture department of the district, 2 lakh 23 thousand 511 hectares of land have been cultivated in 137 haors of Sunamganj district. The production target has been fixed at around 14 lakh metric tons. Out of this, 1 lakh 65 thousand 275 hectares of land has been planted in the low part of Haor and 58 thousand 236 hectares in the high or non-Haor area.
In Sunamganj, the rain started from the middle of March. Later, heavy rains and waterlogging occurred in various parts of the district. Now that the weather is somewhat favorable, the farmers are busy harvesting and drying the paddy.
According to the information of the Agriculture Department, an average of 84.93 percent of paddy has been harvested in Sunamganj till Monday. A total of 1 lakh 87 thousand 957 hectares of rice has been harvested. Out of this, 1 lakh 46 thousand 682 hectares in Haor and 41 thousand 275 hectares of land in non-Haor areas have been harvested. According to that, about 17 percent of paddy is left to be harvested.
According to the calculations of the agriculture department, 20 thousand 550 hectares of paddy has been damaged in Haor of Sunamganj due to heavy rains and floods. The amount of damage in terms of money is about 500 crores. However, local farmers and people of farmer-friendly organizations say that the actual loss is more.
Mohammad Omar Farooq, deputy director of the District Agriculture Extension Department, told Prothom Alo that the final damage calculation has not been determined yet. The damage may increase further.
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