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Fear of devastating floods haunts thousands of people in nearly a dozen districts of north Bihar after the rising Kosi and Gandak rivers forced authorities to release water from barrages on September 28.
Both the Kosi and Gandak have swollen due to heavy monsoon rainfall in the catchment areas of Nepal and north Bihar in the last two days.
Besides, water levels are also rising in the Ganga, Mahananda, Bagmati and Kamla Balan rivers, which threatens to cause flood-like situations in many parts of the state.
The Bihar Disaster Management Department (DMD) has sounded a flood alert in 13 districts, while the Water Resource Department (WRD) has cancelled leaves of all officials and deployed engineers to monitor the situation in districts along the Kosi, Gandak and other rivers.
The India Meteorological Department (Patna) said monsoon will be active in the next three days and also warned of heavy rainfall in north Bihar districts.
Floods threaten people living in low-lying areas of Supaul, Madhepura, Araria, Purnea, Katihar, Sitamarhi, Madhubani, East Champaran, West Champaran and neighbouring districts. Paddy- and maize-growing farmers in these districts fear heavy damage to their standing crops as floodwaters will submerge large tracts of land by September 29.
Floodwaters have already entered more than 200 villages in these affected districts, sources in DMD told this reporter.
A DMD statement on the evening of September 28 said 141,000 people in these districts will be affected by the floods.
According to an official update by the WRD, a total of 557,000 cusecs of water was released from Birpur Barrage on the Kosi till 5 PM on September 28. All 56 sluice gates of the barrage were opened. By 10 pm at night, the discharge had increased to 601,600 cusecs.
Similarly, a total of 480,000 cusecs of water was released from the Valmikinagar Barrage on the Gandak and all 36 sluice gates of barrage were opened on September 28. This later increased to 554,475 cusecs.
WRD officials admitted that they had not expected water levels to rise to astronomical levels that forced the release of water from barrages.
“This is a dangerous situation,” a WRD official told this reporter.
A quick glance at the official records of the WRD shows that the release of water from Birpur Barrage on September 28 is the highest after 1968 when 681,000 cusecs of water were released. Similarly, the release of water from the Valmikinagar Barrage on the Gandak river is the highest after 2003.
Supaul district magistrate Kaushal Kumar has appealed to thousands of people living in hundreds of villages along the Kosi’s embankments to shift to higher ground and take precautions.
However, the latest update by the WRD claimed that all embankments were safe and there was no need to panic.
According to WRD’s website, Bihar is the most flood-affected state, accounting for close to 17.2 per cent of the total flood-prone area in the country.
Some 6.88 million hectares (76 per cent of north Bihar and 73 per cent of south Bihar) of Bihar’s 9.416 million hectare-area is flood-prone. At present, 28 of 38 districts in the state are flood-prone