Hundreds of people who are victims of erosion caused by the Ganga assembled at a village in Malda on Wednesday to start a weeklong march, demanding that their problem be declared a “national disaster” by the Narendra Modi government.

The march that is being organised jointly by Jana Andolan and Ganga Bhangan Pratirodh Action Committee (GBPAC) commenced from Gobardhantola village of Bhutni — the largest island on the Ganga — in the Malda district.

Mohammad Mosarekul Anwar, a GBPAC activist, said hundreds of families had become roofless recently because of the natural calamity at Joshimath in Uttarakhand.

“The Centre took no time to declare it as a national disaster. But in Malda and Murshidabad, the erosion caused by the Ganga has changed the map of these districts. Only in Malda, more than 40,000 people have lost their houses and agricultural plots. We want the central government to declare the erosion here also as a national disaster. Appropriate funds should be allocated for the rehabilitation of these people and to check the erosion on either bank of the river,” he said.

The march, sources said, will move through all erosion-affected areas of Malda. It will end at Birnagar village in Kaliachak 3 block on February 21, where a public meeting will be held to flag the demand.

Biplab Bhattacharya from Calcutta, who joined the march as a Jana Andolan activist, sought a review of the Farakka barrage project.