Eight-year-old Khushi stepped out of her home to ‘see’ the flood waters in Gharhaiya village near Baisi, Purnea. Half hour later, she was fished out of the water by her mother with a half eaten guava still in her hand. The body of 12-year-old Suman Kumar, who had come to visit his sister in nearby Asja village, was found hours after he went missing. Local fishermen recovered his lifeless body clinging on to a small tree submerged in water. As the flood water started receding from the Seemanchal of Bihar, every village in the four districts in this region – Kishanganj, Purnea, Kathihar and Araria – have similar tragedies to share.
Continuous rain and rise in water levels in Mahananda, Kankai, Retua, Mechhi and Bakra rivers have caused massive flooding in this part of the state, with Seemanchal being the hardest hit. Water released from Nepal has also compounded the tragedy. A record 1,000 mm rain the last one week threw life out of gear affecting around 20 lakh people. Mud houses have been damaged, crops destroyed and livestock washed away in the flood. Though teams of the National Disaster Management Force are carrying out rescue operations, victims say the scale of the devastation is too large and that current strength of NDRF personnel is not enough.
People walk through a submerged a bridge in a flood-hit village in Kishanganj district of Bihar on Wednesday. (Source: PTI)
Road links to scores of villages have been cut off. “Pichala panchayat in Kishanganj is cut off totally as all the roads connecting the villages have been damaged in the floods,” Raju of Daula panchayat under Kishanganj district told IndianExpress.com over phone.
People are using small boats to reach safety. “We are using makeshift boats to commute. Many people in our village have no ration for days. We have arranged food material to distribute to the affected families,” said Wasim Akram of Asja village. He said many people have volunteered to help the needy.
Though the government has begun relief and rescue mission, they seem to be overwhelmed by the scale of the tragedy. “The government is distributing 5 quintals of eatables which includes chura and jaggery per panchayat. It is definitely not enough to serve every affected household in a panchayat,” he said.
Villagers watch land erosion in Kishanganj district, Bihar on Tuesday. (Source: PTI)
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar conducted an aerial survey of the area on Thursday and held a meeting in Purnea with the District Magistrate (DM) and other officials. When contacted over phone, Purnea DM Pankaj Kumar Pal said he was busy in relief camps and that he will give comments later.
The issue was raised in the Lok Sabha also when All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi demanded that the Centre should send a team to asses the damage and compensate the victims.
Speaking about loss of property, Wasiqur Rahman, a teacher, told over phone that the flood has pushed the region back by decades. “On the ground, nothing is visible except water. Paddy crop, the mainstay of the region, has been completely destroyed. And small farmers are severely hit by this,” he said.
The ravaging waters have displaced thousands of people and the river channels have also reached dangerously close to villages. “A tributary of the Mahananda river has breached its course and is within a striking distance of Pokharya village under Baisa block in Purnea,” Rahman said.
