Assam villagers tell wetland’s tragic tale through photos
The Hindu
Rural guards honoured with artwork depicting elephants negotiating a killer railway track
About six years ago, dairy farmer Pramod Kalita felt he needed to document the deterioration of the wetland that sustained his forefathers and ensured ample food for herds of elephants that would troop past his village Chakardeo. His informal group of 25 members pooled money for three digital single-lens reflex cameras and went about clicking the elephants, trees, birds, boats, a massive garbage dump and warehouses and a “killer railway track skirting Deepor Beel, a freshwater lake on the south-western edge of Guwahati”. Designated a Ramsar Site in 2002 and an Important Bird Area for sustaining a range of aquatic life forms besides 219 species of birds, the beel has shrunk 35% since the 1990s. Its official area now is 4,014 hectares of 15.5 square miles.More Related News