No bridge, only despair: Majuli’s Bhakat Chapori residents carry dead body on banana raft

Bhakat Chapori, May 27: Residents of Bhakat Chapori in Majuli were recently forced to ferry a deceased villager on a makeshift raft of banana trunks — a stark reminder of their decades-long isolation from basic infrastructure.

The heartbreaking visuals, which surfaced earlier this week, show the raft gliding across the swollen Brahmaputra riverbed. With no bridge or functional embankment connecting Bhakat Chapori’s 16 villages to the mainland, emergency services remain out of reach.

Ambulances and the Swargarath hearse service cannot access the area, forcing residents to depend on tractors, wooden rafts, or even carry the sick and the dead on foot during times of crisis.

"We carried our loved one’s body on a raft of banana trees. This is not a story from the past, it’s today’s reality. Our makeshift bridge was washed away in the flood, and since then, no one has come to help us," said a local resident.

The area has long demanded a permanent bridge or embankment, but despite promises and even a foundation stone laid years ago, construction remains nonexistent. The locals allege that Majuli MLA Bhuvan Gam, who also serves as the contractor for the project, has not initiated work despite repeated assurances during elections.

"When elections come, they come with promises and banners. But when we cry for help, there is only silence," lamented another villager. Last week, three critically ill patients had to be brought out of Bhakat Chapori under similar extreme conditions. None of them could be transported by ambulance due to the same infrastructural failure.

This incident is not an isolated one but a stark reminder of the larger systemic neglect of Assam's riverine communities. As heavy monsoons approach, fears grow stronger in Bhakat Chapori, where daily life itself becomes a gamble with nature.