World | India
Rains cut swathe of destruction in India
One month after an errant Kosi river shifted course triggering the worst floods in Bihar's memory and affecting about four million people, India's water worries showed no signs of ending on Thursday, with incessant rain displacing many thousands in Orissa, West Bengal and even in parched Gujarat.
- IANS
- Published: 00:18 September 19, 2008
New Delhi: One month after an errant Kosi river shifted course triggering the worst floods in Bihar's memory and affecting about four million people, India's water worries showed no signs of ending on Thursday, with incessant rain displacing many thousands in Orissa, West Bengal and even in parched Gujarat.
The rains cut a swathe of destruction not just in eastern India with Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal coping with rising waters but also in Gujarat right across in the west.
Exactly 30 days after the Kosi breached a barrage on the India-Nepal border and shifted its course 120km eastward on August 18, the rains continued to create havoc.
In Orissa, about one million people were displaced, in West Bengal the figure was 60,000 and in dry Gujarat about 10,000 people had to be evacuated.
Bihar was, of course, the worst hit with about 4.34 million people from 2,451 villages in 17 districts declared 'affected'.
Overnight, scores of villages which had not experienced flooding in living memory became the bed of a raging river that is over 30km wide and stretches across more than half the state which is home to 880 persons per square kilometre or 90.75 million people. At the peak of the flooding, more than 290,000 hectares of agriculture land was submerged.
Death toll
The government has put the total human death toll at 125 but mourners telling their stories in the cramped and anxiety-struck relief camps say they saw scores of people scooped away by the brutal current.
"I saw 150 people of my village swept away. One woman went into labour and drowned as she could not climb any rooftop," said locally elected village representative Ram Harianand.
If the Kosi did the damage in Bihar, a deep depression in the Bay of Bengal did the trick in the other states.
Ceaseless rain triggered flash floods in Orissa killing at least three people and impacting nearly one million, officials said.
Unofficial sources put the death toll across the state at 10. As it continued to pour in many parts of the state, the government announced that all schools in the four worst hit districts of Cuttack, Puri, Kendrapada and Jagatsinghpur would be closed today and tomorrow.
The state has 11 major rivers, and water levels in many of them have risen above danger level, Additional Commissioner [Relief] Benudhar Das said.
Heavy rains over the last three days and flooding had affected at least 12 of the 30 districts and marooned over 30 villages. The number affected could be about a million, the official said.
In West Bengal, over 60,000 people were affected and 10,000 houses washed away in East Midnapore, South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas districts by huge tidal surges in Bay of Bengal, said Finance Minister Ashim Dasgupta.
'Sorrow of Bihar'
Thirty days after Kosi, a young, unsettled and ever-angry river, breached a barrage on the India-Nepal border and shifted its course 120km eastward, the over four million survivors in eastern India's Bihar state are bracing themselves for tougher times ahead.
Known as the 'sorrow of Bihar', Kosi went back to a course it had abandoned more than 300 years ago after it broke its banks at Kusaha in Nepal August 18.
Overnight, scores of villages which had not experienced flooding in living memory became the bed of a raging river that is over 30km wide and stretches across more than half the state which is home to 880 persons per square km or 90.75 million people. At the peak of the flooding, more than 290,000 hectares of agriculture land was submerged.
About 4.34 million people from 2,451 villages in 17 districts were declared 'affected' due to flood in the state with five districts - Supaul, Saharsa, Madhepura, Purnea and Araria being the 'most affected'.
According to Pratyaya Amrit, additional commissioner, Bihar Disaster Management Department: "Over 3.02 million people of 1,021 villages have been severely affected in these districts out of which 0.75 million [750,000] are children between 0-9 years."
Share this article
News Editor's choice
-
A year after 173 defenceless people were killed
Mumbai itself is far from safe from another deadly attack, even though the level of security consciousness of the average Mumbaikar has been raised since 26/11
-
Nato supports Obama's plea
European and other allies to send around 6,000 troops to Afghanistan
-
Official confirms mayor is the suspect
Many witnesses have come forward, justice secretary says
-
Into an oasis of values
A place to snuggle in the warmth of old manners away from the bustle of city life
