Bihar floods: IAF choppers carry out relief, rescue operations

PATNA: The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Tuesday carried out rescue and relief operations in remote areas of Sitamarhi and Darbhanga districts of Bihar, which have been ravaged by the floods.

Over a hundred villages of the districts have been submerged with floodwaters after Bagmati and Kosi rivers breached their embankments at five different places on Monday.

The disaster mangement department (DMD) decided to engage the IAF helicopters after chief minister Nitish Kumar carried out aerial survey of the districts affected by the floods.

Water resources minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, principal secretary to the CM, Deepak Kumar, and DMD additional chief secretary, Pratyaya Amrit, were also on board the chopper with the CM during the survey.

Reports from the DMD said that about 1 million people of over a dozen districts have been facing the worst kind of floods due to a record discharge of water from the rivers in Nepal.

Over 200 people were killed in Nepal due to heavy to very heavy rains and subsequent flash floods. Large swathes of land have been inundated following the release of water from a barrage along the border with Nepal.

After the aerial survey, the CM instructed officials concerned to accord top priority to providing affected people with relief items such as food packets, medicines and polythene sheets. He said in areas which have become inaccessible through boats, arrangements should be made to airdrop these items with help from IAF and asked for maintaining hygiene and proper lighting arrangements at relief camps and making shift toilets and community kitchens, which have been set up in view of the calamity.

The flood situation in north Bihar remained grim, even as discharge in all major rivers including Gandak, Kosi, Bagmati and Mahananda has reduced considerably in the last 48 hours. Rivers like Gandak, Bagmati, Kosi, Adhwara, Khiroi, Mahananda, Ganga, etc, are still flowing above the danger levels at different locations. Bakra river, a tributary of Mahanda is wreaking havoc in Araria. The water of Bakra river has begun engulfing town areas, forcing the people to look for alternative places for shelter.

Miseries of people of Bairiya block of Bettiah have complicated after the swollen Gandak breached the PD ring bund, inundating dozens of villages in five adjacent panchayats. The Gandak also washed away a portion of ring bund near Loknathpur village under Areraj block of East Champaran district, flooding around two dozen villages.

The condition of Sitamarhi and Sheohar remained grim, where Bagmati had breached its safety embankments at five places. Water is overflowing over two dozen roads, forcing the residents to take refuge on Muzaffarpur-Sitamarhi national highway.

BETTIAH: The turbulent Gandak river on Monday late evening breached a ring bundh at Dakshini Patjirwa Bairiya block of West Champaran, affecting around 1,000 families in the area.

West Champaran district magistrate (DM), Dinesh Kumar Rai, on Tuesday said following a heavy pressure and high-water current in the river, the bundh, measuring around 75 feet, collapsed at Dakshini Patjirwa in Bairiya block of the district.

“As a result, about 1,000 families have been affected. The relief material and dry ration have been rushed to the people. We are looking forward to running the community kitchen, too, based on the requirement,” the district magistrate said.

Officials said that after breaching the bundh, water from the Gandak river invaded near two dozen villages, which fall under four panchayats namely Ranha, Pakhanha, Ghodaiya and Suryapur.

“Efforts are on to plug the bundh,” the DM said.

Locals said they did not perceive any threat to the bundh till last evening. “But, suddenly it collapsed around 10pm and the gap got widened,” said a local villager.

(With inputs from Sandeep Bhaskar, Bettiah)