Choked with silt and reduced to a fraction of its former width, the Bhadra River now forces locals, including schoolchildren, farmers, labourers, and the elderly, to risk their lives on a fragile bamboo bridge to cross to the middle of the narrow stream, where boats wait to carry them across. In the dry season, the shallow water level also devastates fish and aquatic biodiversity. The photo was taken recently at Sharafpur ferry ghat in Dumuria, Khulna.