Panic gripped north Bihar and thousands of people fled their homes on Sunday after the State Government issued a flood alert in the Kosi river and ordered forcible evacuation of people in seven districts. The fear of deluge looked imminent after a 10-metre high wall of water was expected to sweep down the Kosi river from Nepal soon.
Altogether 44,000 people have already been shifted to relief camps and over one lakh are expected to be evacuated by late on Sunday night.“We’ve invoked the provisions of the disaster management act to initiate forcible evacuation of population living in the danger zone of Kosi,” said Aniruddh Kumar, special secretary in State Disaster Manag-ement Department (DMD).
The move, said the official, has to be undertaken after the discharge of 1.25 lakh cusecs of water from Nepal. The Nepal army carried out two low intensity blasts to open the main course of the river. The release of water has raised the water level in the Kosi river flowing across the districts of Supaul, Sharasha, Madhubani, Khagaria, Madhepura and Araria and Purnia.
The Centre on Sunday rushed in essential supplies, relief teams and other assistance to Bihar to deal with Kosi flood situation and put on standby several aircraft to deal with any emergency. Assuring Bihar Government of all possible assistance from the Centre, Cabinet Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said eight National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams have already been deployed and seven will soon be sent.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given clear instruction for rendering all possible help to Bihar government. The Centre’s actions have been prompt and timely,” Prasad said at a Press conference here. Water level in Kosi river is rising, though it is not at an alarming rate, the situation remains unpredictable, he said.
Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi took an aerial survey on Sunday and said that the situation was serious in the affected parts of the north Bihar.“The administration is keeping close watch on the water level and making all preparatory measures to avoid any loss of human lives or others”, said Vyasji, principal se retary of State Disaster Management Department. Altogether 117 relief camps have been set up in the affected districts.
The State Disaster Management officials also informed that15 columns of national and State Disaster Response Forces have been positioned in critical areas while three columns of the Army have also been moved in to help in Saharsa, Madhepura and Supaul.
Besides, eight team of NDRF and altogether 15 teams of SDRF equipped with satellite phones and high speed boats have already reached in the border districts of north Bihar and engaged in evacuating people from their villages on the river embankment side. Seven additional teams of NDRF too would reach the Kosi area soon, said the officials.
“Evacuation of people to relief camps has also been started in Darbhanga and Madhubani districts by the NDRF teams,” said Vijay Sinha, commandant of NDRF.Officials also said that Indian Air Force helicopters from its Gorakhpur and Bagdogra base in Uttar Pradesh and Purnia’s Chunapur air base would also be used in rescue and relief operations if required.
Meanwhile, local people said that in Mahishi thousands of people have been evacuated to the eastern embankments near Baluahi and Nauhatta. About 200,000 people in about 100 villages of Mahisi and Nauhatta blocks between the eastern embankment of the Kosi river face imminent danger from the flood.Similarly, around two lakh people living within the embankments on a 256 km stretch from Birpur to Naugacchia and Khagaria near the Ganga face the fear flooding.
The Centre has asked officials of the Central Water Commission to speak to their counterparts in Nepal to monitor the flow of water. Officials of both Center and the state government are reported to be in constant touch to tackle the imminent danger.Experts feel that threat of floods is intense, but the situation can be controlled if Nepal releases the water slowly and in gradual manner. “The present rate of discharge by the Nepal government seems to be safe. The reserved water will slowly merge with rivers easing the flood threat,” Dinesh Mishra, a river expert said.
Earlier, a major landslide in Sindhupal chowk district of Nepal had blocked Sunkosi River for nearly 11 hours.To minimize the flow of the flood and to merge the released water with the rivers, all the 56 gates of Birpur barrage were opened on Saturday.The State Government is keeping its fingers crossed that a repeat of the Kosi disaster of 2008 would not happen again. Altogether 540 people were officials declared dead and over 30 lakh e displaced and over 8 lakh acres of land were destroyed.