Majuli, a river island within the two arms of the mighty Brahmaputra river, is a site having extreme historical and cultural importance, and warrants immediate exposure to the scientific community. The island faces an acute erosion problem as no permanent anti-erosion measures based on proper geohydrological models have been adopted so far. The land area of the island, as evidenced from the IRS satellite imagery of 1998, is 577.65 km2 compared to 1245 km2 according to available historical records. The available data indicate an erosion rate of 1.9 km2 / yr for the period of 1920–98.