Romen: The BSF should appoint local boys who know the ways of the illegal immigrants. More and more of our boys must enter the BSF.

Some fifty kilometres across the river lies Kalapani, amid the flat countryside that rolls eastward from the banks of the Brahmaputra. Its very name says a lot. Black Water. The phrase conjures up a place of punishment, of exile such as the Andamans was to Indian freedom fighters during the independence movement.

During the monsoon, much of the village is flooded, with only a few pukka houses, built on slightly higher ground, escaping the wrath of the river. There is one pot-holed road that leads to Kalapani; the hills have been stripped of trees and there are settlements of both tribals and non-tribals, especially Bengali-speaking Muslims, inside areas where forests once were. All this is of course illegal. But no group, least of all the forest department seems either perturbed or prepared to take action to protect its own legacy, its own rights.

In this backwater, there has been an extraordinary development.

The population of Kalapani has increased 300 per cent in the past decade. This must be among the highest growth rates registered anywhere in India. As we have noted elsewhere, Assam’s population growth is about the national average although there are substantial variations for Hindus and Muslims. Thus the Muslim population in the state grew by 77 per cent between 1971 and 1991, an average of 38.5 per cent for each of those decades. The Hindu rate of growth was considerably lower, about 68 per cent or 34 per cent per decade.

Kalapani is dominated by Muslims. Where have the new numbers come from?

One local leader says the increase was caused by the devastation wrought by the Brahmaputra in South Salmara. ‘Everyone says they’re from South Salmara, that they have lost homes and property there and have come here to earn a livelihood. Who’s to check?’ he asked.

Clearly, very few do. Even local officials, while acknowledging the growth in the population pattern say that there is little that can be done to verify the extent of the problem. Old records are unavailable, especially land records of places that have been eroded and submerged.

Chandan Bhowmick, the former president of the Samabhay Samiti, said that the data has been damaged by the floods. ‘Here and there, you will find bits and pieces.’ Bhowmick said he was unsure of the reasons behind the stunning population growth. ‘Maybe some foreigners have come, some might be from nearby villages, chars, some as a result of natural growth.’

The Kalapani figures make interesting reading: on 30 June 1991, the population was listed at 643, including 278 Hindus and 365 Muslims. In 1999 it read 500 Hindus and 1,000 Muslims for a grand total of 1,500. That represents a nearly three-fold growth for the Muslims and less than half for the Hindus. Saadullabari rose from 1,730 Muslims (there are no Hindus there) to 3,551 in the same period or just over double.