«Eaten» by Brahmaputra. Twenty years ago the village of Bogolipara in Assam, India, was twenty kilometres away from the shore of Brahmaputra. Today the river has swallowed up almost the whole village, 136 houses.
The river has gotten shallower due to more debris and sand in the water further upriver. This is mainly because trees have been cut down in the hills and mountains next to the river. When the monsoon rain then comes, there are no trees to stop sand, rocks and so to slide into the river. This is picked up by the running water, and when the landscape gets flat, all this ends up on the bottom of the river, making its water seek the edges and thus making the river wider.
A warmer climate, making the big glaciers of Himalaya melt faster, adding more water to the river, is also a fact. And on top of that an earthquake in 1950, changed the course of the river.
I photographed the village Bogolipara during a trip here in 2019.