Abstract

The understanding of local coping and survival strategies are very important to know about how a community deals with hazardous condition. Each community builds own local survival strategies to overcome the vulnerability of familiar disastrous events. Histories have shown that ‘Majuli the largest riverine Island of the world has been experiencing the effects of flood since past. The mainland of Majuli Island is surrounded by several small islets or chapories and the studied area “Bhakat Chapori” is one of them. Local people of this chapori have been living with flood since long and now flood became a part of their life and culture. The present study includes how local or indigenous knowledge system of the villages of Bhakat chapori can help them to manage mild effects of flood as per their own survival strategies. The paper is an outcome of ongoing doctoral research work, purely based on ethnographic fieldwork. Here an attempt has made to document and understand the local survival or coping strategies of a small island during flood events. Some strategies are so effective that those can be applied other parts of the country or world for the better survival of the people.

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