Farakka Barrage, completed in 1970 by the Indian Government, was built on the river Ganga in West Bengal as a means to divert water to revive the dying Kolkata Port. Originally planned by British engineers during colonial times, The barrage also connects North Bengal to South Bengal with a road and rail network, acting as one of the most important communication tools in the region. Built on the controversial idea of diverting water to stop siltation in the Kolkata Port, The project was criticized from its inception regarding water sharing with Bangladesh, changing the hydrological nature of the river's flow, causing floods in Bihar and massive erosion in its adjacent banks.
Maldah and Murshidabad districts of West Bengal, just north and south of Farakka Barrage have been suffering massive riverbank erosion since the establishment of the barrage.Every year, During the monsoon, Several villages and agricultural land are lost in the Ganga. According to a study in 2008, More than 700,000 people in these two districts have been displaced due to Ganga bank erosion eroding more than 500 Square km of fertile land from the districts of Murshidabad and Malda. Every year, hundreds of families become homeless and impoverished overnight when their villages and lands are washed away in the river. Men migrated to other states for daily laborer jobs while women had to run their families all by themselves on meager earnings. The children drop out of school to support their families and become child laborers. As the natural flow halts, due to excessive siltation, the river attempts to recourse its path through adjacent riverine villages portraying the human cost of so-called progress disguised as an environmental calamity.
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