Erosion by the Lali river, a tributary of the Brahmaputra at Berachapori under Jonai revenue circle in Dhemaji district, has left 30 families of the riverine villages homeless and gobbled up hundreds of acres of cropland.

In the past three months, nearly 19 families of Tari Majgaon and Bera Milan villages have taken shelter in a temporary relief camp at Bera Chapori LP School while 11 other families of Bera Bihari are passing sleepless nights with their belongings on the embankment.

Erosion is threatening Bera Milan, Bera Bengali, Tari Majgaon, and Kerker villages and has already eroded a long stretch of the dyke.

The villagers on Sunday alleged that the state government and the Centre were not paying attention to the perennial problem of floods. Recurring floods and erosion have dented the rural economy.

Local residents at a camp

“Four members of my family and I were running a shop at Bera Chaporitinali, but turbulent waters of the Lali engulfed my land and property on the night of August 12. I have lost my home,” Umesh Chetiay of Tari Majgaon, one of the camp inmates, said.

Other inmates including Dharmendra Gogoi, Jay Prakash Yadav, Raj Kumari Barman and Gobin Saikia, who have lost their homes and properties in erosion, explained their plight. They are looking for government help.

The villagers of Bera Chapori said the state’s water resource department and the Mising Autonomous Council had earlier erected some RCC spars on the riverbed to control erosion but there were technical faults.

The flood victims said the local MLA and the councillor of the Mising Autonomous Council had assured relief and rehabilitation measures for the erosion-affected families. “We are looking for their help for proper rehabilitation measures,” a villager said.

The water resources department had earlier erected some RCC porcupines at Berachapori, Bera Milon, Bera Bihari, Tari Majgaon and Kerker villages to check erosion after a long stretch of the embankment was breached, but the step did not yield desired results. The villages now are on the brink of extinction.

In 2011, altogether 38 families of Beraghat and Laliporia villages were rendered homeless in the Berachapori area along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border and four schools were washed away.