The paddy is still standing. But for how long, nobody knows.
In Borguli village under Mebo Sub-Division of East Siang district, farmers are watching the Siang River swallow their land — season after season, year after year. What began as riverbank erosion has now crept deep enough to threaten the Wet Rice Cultivation (WRC) fields that entire families depend on for food and income. For these communities, this isn’t a flood statistic. It’s a slow-motion disaster playing out in their backyards.
On Friday, a local inspection team walked through the damaged fields to see the situation firsthand. Monggu Banggo-I ZPM Bapiyang Tayeng, along with WRD Mebo Sub-Division Assistant Engineer Bani Langkam and Gaon Burahs Nogen Yirang, Tokong Tayeng and Bidesor Perme, assessed the extent of the damage on the ground. What they found wasn’t pretty.
Portions of farmer Otil Tayeng’s WRC fields had already been eaten away by the river. And his neighbours — Aki Tayeng, Golen Tayeng, Odan Tayeng, Joito Tayeng, Jin Tayeng and several others — are staring down the same fate. Their fields sit at the edge. One bad flood, one shift in the river’s course, and it’s gone.
Otil Tayeng didn’t mince words when he spoke about what this means for his family. “The erosion has already reached my standing paddy field,” he said, “and the remaining portion could be swallowed by the river at any time.” This is a man watching his children’s school fees, his family’s meals, and his livelihood all hinge on a shrinking patch of earth being slowly taken by a river that answers to no one.
What makes this even harder to sit with is that the damage isn’t new. Recurring floods have already stripped away cash-crop plantations, bamboo groves and stretches of fertile land across Borguli over the years. The river has been shifting and encroaching for a long time. The WRC fields being threatened now are simply what’s left.
And Borguli is not alone. Several villages in the Monggu Banggo area of Mebo Sub-Division — Namsing, Seram, Kongkul, Mer, Gadum — are dealing with the same Siang erosion crisis. Schools, roads, healthcare facilities, electricity infrastructure — all have taken hits across these villages. This is a regional problem being treated like a village-level inconvenience.
Mebo MLA Oken Tayeng has been vocal about what’s actually needed. A mega flood-control project along the Siang riverbank, stretching from Sigar to Mer village, has been proposed — but is still waiting on central government sanction. “Without a mega project, it will not be possible to effectively mitigate erosion along the left bank of the Siang River,” Tayeng said pointedly. He’s right. Patchwork, scattered small-scale interventions have proven time and again that they don’t work here. The river is too powerful, the damage too widespread.
The inspection team’s report will be submitted to the relevant authorities. The affected villagers have appealed to both state and central governments for immediate compensation, proper flood-control structures, and a long-term plan that actually holds.
The report will be filed. The appeals will be made. But every day that passes without action is another day the Siang takes a little more — and these families have very little left to give.
