After losing acres of agricultural land, the residents of sea-ravaged Satabhaya panchayat got just 10 decimals of land at their rehabilitation colony in Bagapatia. Adding to their woes, the men folk, in the absence of steady sources of income, migrated to other States in search of greener pasture leaving the women to fend for themselves.

Houses, school and a primary healthcare centre in 5km distance are okay but what about the income which has taken a nosedive since their relocation to the colony, asks Sujata Dalai (35), a former resident of Satabhaya.

Every day, she travels 12 km from Bagapatia to Satabhaya on foot for fishing, her only source of livelihood, and returns. She gets up in wee hours and leaves with her fishing gear after doing her daily chores. She carries watered rice, mashed potato and sometimes a piece of dry fish in the name of lunch that keeps her working for the day.

Her daily grind continues until she feels the catch is adequate enough to get square meals for a family of six, including husband and four children.

Though her husband works as a daily wager, his earning is not sufficient to meet the need of the family. Before returning home, an undernourished Sujata has to sell her catch in a market, to supplement her hubby’s income.

The tale of 40-year-old Rusia Behera is no different. She walks daily to the creeks of Satabhaya for fishing to keep the hearth fire burning. Her husband and son are migrant labourers working in Kerala, while she looks for a groom for her grown-up daughter. “I can’t afford to relax for even a day as savings are important for my daughter’s marriage. Walking miles and crossing the waters of crocodile-infested river Baunshagada to reach the creeks of Satabhaya for fishing is part of our daily life.”

The furious sea near Satabhaya, in last couple of decades, has already gobbled up over 600 houses and hundreds of acres of agricultural land.

The cluster of seven villages has now come down to only two – Satabhaya and Kanhupur. Five other villages – Gobindapur, Mohanpur, Chintamanipur, Badagahiramatha and Kharikula – have gone under the water.

According to Sukadeva Behera (82), “The seawater has crept three kilometres into Satabhaya over the last three decades. Nearly 700 people of the panchayat were perished in a cyclone that hit the coast in 1971. Since then, the sea is inching towards the human habitation.

Ashish Senapati, who has been tracking the coastal erosion said, “Most of the people here were farmers. But they had to switch to fishing for a living after their farmlands submerged under water. A large tract of land lost fertility due to soil salinisation. Collection of honey was one of the regular sources of livelihood for the Satabhaya people, but the loss of mangroves due to anthropogenic pressure and other factors deprived them of the option too.”

Dairy farming was also one of the major sources of livelihood, but nature’s fury has exhausted that source. Many villagers are now left to work as daily wagers. Shrinking income sources has also resulted in mass exodus of the villagers from the panchayat. While men have migrated to other States to work as bonded labourers, women either work as house maids or go for fishing (both saltwater and fresh water) to support family, Senapati added.

Meanwhile, the State Government dealt a major blow to their livelihood by imposing a ban on marine fishing for seven months in a year to save the Olive Ridley sea turtles.  It was clamped under several sections of the Orissa Marine Fishing Regulation Act-1982 and provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act -1972 after Satabhaya came under Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary. Fishing near the shoreline along mangrove forest was also banned after Bhitarkanika was accorded the status of a wildlife sanctuary and national park, said Narayan Chandra Haldar, president of the Odisha Matsyajibi Forum.

Niranjan Swain (63), a native of Satabhaya who lives in Cuttack for the last three years after sea devoured his land, said, “Around 60 per cent people of Satabhaya were in possession of land ranging between five and ten acres. But in the rehabilitation colony at Bagapatia we were handed over with only 10 decimals of land for each family to construct houses under Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana. The Government is also not bothered about our source of earning.”

Swain, a witness to the devastating cyclones of 1967 and 1971 that flattened hundreds of houses of the panchayat, regularly visits

Satabhaya and the rehabilitation colony to provide healthcare service to the distressed people.

Though Satabhaya is the only sea-erosion prone region of the country where the rehabilitation process was undertaken in a systematic manner, the procedure was plagued by various irregularities. People resent the apathy of the administration towards the livelihood problems. Women here are a distressed lot as the men of most of the households have migrated outside, said Bijay Prasad Pati, who works for the restoration of mangrove ecosystems in the coasts.

While the rehabilitated families struggle to meet ends, nearly a hundred families who are yet to be relocated from Satabhaya spend sleepless nights under the threat of being swept away by tides.

Prabhabati Behera (55), “We face acute water crisis as about 10 tube-wells of the area have gone under the seawater in last two decades. A tube-well with its handle fixed at a height of six metre inside the sea bears the testimony of the rate at which sea is advancing into the human settlement. The villagers have tied a rope to its handle to pump out water.”

It is very difficult to collect water from that height. But, they have no option but to draw water from this lone source of drinking water to meet all their needs, added Prabhabati.

The tube well on the beach is the last source of water for the villagers, said Sudarshan Rout, a social worker. Rout, who stays in the rehabilitation colony recalled, “The tube well was drilled at the centre of the village about 18 years back. A dense casuarinas forest and a long stretch of sandy patch existed on the outskirts of the village. But rapid incursion of seawater has eaten out half of the village making the tube-well appear on the beach.”

Shivendra Narayan Bhanjadeo, the present scion of Kanika royal family, said the Government has committed a lot of mistakes in selecting site to set up the rehabilitation colony.

Dr Ananta Kumar Sahoo, a senior ecologist of World Bank sponsored Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) Project in the state said,

“The rising sea level coupled with the change of the wind pattern causes high waves. This has led to the disappearance of Satabhaya beach and caused massive damage to the habitat and livelihood of people. Satabhaya is not protected by embankments that can check the sea wave.”

Activist Ranjan Panda says, “Our Governments are yet to gear up in a systematic manner to deal with internally displaced people due to climate change.”