The Satradhikars also headed a two-hour sit-in demonstration at the Kamalabari ghat in Majuli in which over 4,000 people took part. At a subsequent meeting they lambasted the state and Central governments for failing to take any serious step to save the island.

Majuli, the world’s largest inhabited river island, has been facing a serious threat from the Brahmaputra in which it is located, with the turbulent river already eroding away nearly half its land mass in the past 50 years.

“We have been telling the Government over and over again that Majuli is not just home to over two lakh people, but also the heart and soul of Assamese culture and arts. But all our pleas have just fallen on deaf ears. All that the Government does is announce or sanction a few crores of rupees,” Pitamabar Deva Goswami, Satradhikar of Auniati Satra and one of the minds behind the Save Majuli campaign, told The Indian Express over the phone.

He pointed out that whenever the issue was raised, the Government makes an announcement that the Prime Minister would personally visit the island. “We have heard of at least three programmes about the PM’s visit in the past two years. But he has always chosen to cancel the programme at the last minute,” the Satradhikar lamented.

While the PM’s proposed visit has been put off thrice in the past two years, the Assam Government had only last week said that Manmohan Singh was likely to visit the island next week. Union Minister B K Handique, who visited the island last month, had also promised that the PM would soon visit Majuli.

Meanwhile, the Majuli Suraksha Samanwaya Samiti, an umbrella body of various organisations of the island, on Thursday asked the Government to make its “final commitment” by May 15 whether it had any intention to protect the island or not. “Whatever funds the Government has sanctioned so far has not helped protect even an inch of land,” said an office-bearer.

Last November, the PM had reviewed the Government action to counter the erosion and directed that the action plan be implemented on “highest priority”. A meeting chaired by him in New Delhi was attended by Union Ministers Saifuddin Soz and Ambika Soni besides senior officials.