Patna: Flood victims in Bihar are battling reptiles, insects and stray dogs as they invade their homes seeking shelter and prey.
Floods have inundated vast areas in three north Bihar districts, bringing untold miseries to nearly a million villagers.
"There are cobras and scorpions everywhere. They are in closets, kitchens and... even on our beds. We can't even sleep in peace", a villager Rupdeo Mahato, from Rupanchap village in Gopalganj, told reporters yesterday.
Another villager said he did not sleep due to a lurking fear of snakes biting him in his sleep.
"The bigger danger is of wild pigs which have been forced out of their habitat after the river changed its course," a senior administrative official said.
Some local villagers claim to have seen several pigs in floating in the water after the embankment broke.
Mosquitoes are yet another problem for villagers now trapped in their homes and on embankments.
An official report yesterday said the flood situation had improved marginally, with floodwaters receding a bit in Gopalganj. However, there were reports of water entering some new areas in the neighbouring Saran and Siwan districts, forcing villagers to flee their homes.
According to an official report, floods have affected a total population of around 800,000 in Bihar and damaged some 10,000 houses, crops and public properties. The loss of properties caused by floods is estimated Rs69,2 million (Dh2.9 million).
Yesterday, villagers again complained that the administration was not supplying them with adequate foods and medicines.
But officials said they had taken every possible measure to ensure villagers were tended to.
"We have supplied food packets to some 7,000 villagers so far and also distributed raw foods," Gangan, a senior state disaster management official, told Gulf News yesterday.
