According to the wikipedia Chhoto Jomuna river (ছোট যমুনা নদী) is originated from inside Bangladesh. More specially from Parbatipur of Dinajpur district. It is mainly originated from a waterbody named Boro Chondipur beel (বড় চণ্ডীপুর বিল). After crossing approximately 56 kilometer the river joins with the river Atrai. Throughout this course the river goes inside India (the mouth near the Dinajpur district) for a short period and then enters inside Bangladesh again. This is a very narrow river and at current days it looks like a mere canal.
Photos of this article were taken from the area near Baro Shibaloy Temple. It looks like the river doesn’t have any flow at all these days. Surface of the water looks like a still picture as there due to lack of motion. It looks like a series of small ponds are put in a river. Anyone can cross the river through those false bank of the ponds. But once upon a time this river was the best option for the local people to do the communication between other cities or villages. Those heydays are gone by many years back. Now the river only gets water for one or two months, and that is only during rainy season.
From the look of the water of the river it is certain that there were no fishes. Once upon a time the farmers around the river used the water from the river for irrigation. But now since the water gets dry during the summer, greedy people take this advantage to cultivate the paddy there. Which eventually helping the river to die sooner. I am afraid that someday this dying river would take revenge by causing flood. Due to lake of sufficient depth, the river wouldn’t be able to hold much of water during rainy season.
আমাদের ছোটো নদী চলে বাঁকে বাঁকে
বৈশাখ মাসে তার হাঁটু জল থাকে।
বিশ্বকবি রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর লিখেছিলেন কবিতাখানি। তখন হয়তো বৈশাখ মাসে হাটু জল থাকতো। কিন্তু মনে হচ্ছে সেই দিনও গেলো বলে। বাংলাদেশের অনেক নদীতেই এখন হাঁটু জল থাকেনা। ছোট যমুনা নদী তার একটি মাত্র।
Photos of this article were taken from Bel-Amla village of Joypurhat. It was during the summer of May 2013.
This article has written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog http://icwow.blogspot.com/
