Quarrying And Livelihood Issues Of A Himalayan Foothill Village In Lakhimpur District, Assam

Rivers have always been the people�s sources of livelihood throughout the world in one way or the other. Quarrying in the upper catchment areas of the rivers is one of the oldest primary economic activities that man has been practicing on the banks and beds of many rivers since long times. Like the other parts of the world, the livelihoods of the rural people of Assam living in the upper catchment areas of the river valleys, especially of those located adjacent to the rivers are to a large extent related to quarrying (extraction of sand, gravel, pebbles, riprap, construction aggregates, etc.). However, with the passage of time, quarrying has turned out to be one of the prominent sources of livelihood for that section of people. Noteworthy that, they started practicing quarry activities at a larger scale as soon as they started generating income out of it, due to which river bank erosion and several other problems have popped up meanwhile. This paper is, thus, an attempt to study the status and impacts of quarrying on the lives and livelihoods of the people of 2 No. Parbatipur village in Lakhimpur district, Assam located along the banks of the river Dikrong. The study has been carried out mostly using primary data and information collected through household survey using a well-structured questionnaire cum schedule and oral interviews among the villagers.

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