A changing landscape
Majuli is the world's largest inhabited river island, but its existence is precarious. At the beginning of the 20th century, the island's landmass was approximately 1,250 square kilometers. By 2014, that area had shrunk to 483 square kilometers. This constant erosion is a product of the island's location within the Brahmaputra, a braided river with multiple, shifting channels that carry immense volumes of water and sediment from the Himalayas. The island itself is composed of soft, unconsolidated alluvial soil, making its banks highly vulnerable to the river's powerful currents, especially during the monsoon season.
A single geological event dramatically accelerated the erosion. The 8.6 magnitude Assam–Tibet earthquake of 1950 triggered immense landslides upstream. This event dumped vast quantities of sediment into the Brahmaputra, raising its riverbed by several meters. The elevated riverbed reduced the channel's carrying capacity, intensifying the floods and the erosive force against Majuli's shores. Analysis of satellite imagery from recent decades allows for precise measurement of the land loss, showing a persistent and threatening reduction of the island's total area.
Culture against the current
The shrinking of Majuli is a direct threat to the unique culture it supports. The island is the center of Assamese neo-Vaishnavite culture, established in the 16th century by the saint Srimanta Sankardeva. This tradition is preserved in monasteries known as satras. Originally, 65 satras existed on the island. Today, only 22 remain. The rest have been forced to relocate to the mainland or have been lost entirely to the river. Some satras, like the Auniati Satra, have had to relocate within the island multiple times to escape the encroaching river.
The erosion also displaces the island's indigenous communities. The Mishing people, who live in traditional bamboo stilt houses built to withstand seasonal floods, face the complete loss of their ancestral lands. Entire villages have been washed away, forcing thousands of families to move. This continuous loss of land threatens homes, farms, and the cultural identity of a population tied to this specific, and disappearing, geography.