Torrential downpour in the eastern part of the country over the past week has resulted in many rivers flowing above the danger level and causing flood along their course. While the flood situation in Assam is said to be the worst in 13 years, its neighbouring states, Arunachal Pradesh and Bihar are also submerged.
Climate change experts say the main reason behind the flood is the changing rainfall pattern in northeast India. Dr Abdhesh Kumar Gangwar, an environment and climate change expert and the programme director of Centre for Environment Education, says the global temperature has increased which is leading to more evaporation from the seabed and higher precipitation. “Because of climate change, we are witnessing extreme weather events. We are having floods in some areas and drought in some other areas at the same time. Rainfall is the same, but before industrialisation, rainfall used to be slow and gradual and we had more rainy days and enough land to absorb the water. Now, the same amount of rainfall comes down in a very short period of time which is leading to flooding,” he says.
More than half of the districts of Bihar are deluged with almost all the rivers flowing above the danger-level mark. According to the Bihar Disaster Management Authority, more than 3,867 villages in Purnea, Nalanda, Patna, Kishanganj and Madhubani districts are bearing the brunt of the flood. As many as 133 villages in Madhepura, Sitamarhi and Gopalgarh were affected between Tuesday and Wednesday.
In Bihar, the number of people affected by the deluge stood at 73 lakh on August 16, according to the state’s daily flood report. The flood has claimed 72 lives in the state so far, with 16 lives lost between Tuesday and Wednesday. In this period, 48 new relief camps were set up, taking the total number of camps to 504.
This time around, the floods have reached even those places that have not witnessed one before. In Pashchim Champaran district, a few blocks have seen three to four cycles of flash floods. The situation has worsened in eight of the flood-affected blocks this week. According to the locals, the district has never experienced flash floods of this severity. Vinay Kumar, secretary of NGO Water Action says half of the affected populace in Pashchim Champaran has never seen a flood before.
Vinod Patel, a farmer from Ramgarh district lost his belongings after his house was washed away in the floods. “I found the remnants of my house a kilometre away. I am just trying to salvage whatever I can,” he says. According to a news report, the flood situation worsened in Bihar after 4.85 lakh cusec water was released on Sunday from the Gandak barrage in Valmikinagar.
Anirudh Kumar, joint secretary, Bihar Disaster Management Department, says the situation was critical in Madhubani, Kishanganj, Katihar, Champaran, Supaul, Araria, Saharsa and Madhepur. Forty-eight teams of National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force and the army were working round the clock to rescue people. He says 2.78 lakh people have been rescued so far and 1.6 lakh have been relocated to a safer place.
The Indian Air Force has also pitched in with a helicopter, two aircraft, four boats and 90 troops for the rescue operation, a senior Air Force official says.
Supaul resident, Rahul Kumar, says streets in Kishanganj and Araria were under waist-deep water. According to chief public relations officer of East Central Railway, Rajesh Kumar, 18 trains have been cancelled and the others were running late because of the flood. “Katihar-Siliguri rail route was closed and there was no contact with the northeast,” he says. Kosi river, which had wreaked havoc in Bihar in 2008, is inundating villages and eroding lands in Supaul.
In Assam, which is experiencing the third wave of flood this year, 24 of its 32 districts are under water. About 33.45 lakh people and 2,970 villages have been affected, according to a report by the Assam State Disaster Management Authority dated August 16. The government has set up 304 relief camps, where about 1.39 lakh people have taken shelter.