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Photo Feature
Under the same sky
A photo feature by Saikat Ranjan Bhadra
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| Amidst the swirling waters of the Brahmaputra River and under the same Bangladeshi sky, more than 14,600 people live on Ostomir char, a river silt in North Bengal's Kurigram district.
Only accessible by boat, the island and its inhabitants battle frequent and intensive flooding and erosion on a yearly basis. As a result, moving and changing homes is a way of life for the people here, many of whom live in poverty. With such harsh living conditions, many residents end up looking for work in the cities. |
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There is only one high school and a few primary schools on the island, and a small local market opened on Fridays and Mondays. The nearest other market in Chilmare is an hour away by boat. There are no government health clinics here either, and only a medicine store. Once, there was a jolthana here, the only floating police station in Bangladesh.
Many kinds of crops are grown on the land here, 90 per cent of which is covered in sand, such as jute, wheat, peanut and various spices. The farmers say they never needed fertilisers in the past, unlike today. |
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