Small rivers, big havoc
The only thing separating Bhiknathori, a village on the border of the Valmiki Tiger Reserve, from Nepal is Pandai, a hill river that comes from across the international border. It flows along Bhiknathori to meet the Sikrana river, also known as the Burhi Gandak. The night of August 12 also brought unprecedented floods to Bhiknathori, a village of 165 households.
“Minutes before the flood, we heard gargarahat [loud thunderous noise] of large stones coming along with the flood waters,” said Kalan Khan, 82. “The river water had turned yellowish brown and we could see the Pandai jumping high and coming towards our village. We ran for our lives.”
Pandai’s waters eroded over 50-70 square feet of land, including 31 houses, an ancient temple and two government guest houses. A substantive part of Bhiknathori’s market was also washed away, said Dayanand Sahni, 60, a former mukhiya (head) of Dhamaura panchayat.
Nilesh Deore, the district magistrate of Pashchim Champaran, admitted that the floods caused unexpected devastation this year. “Our district is flood-prone and we had stationed rescue boats along the main Gandak river. But, this year the pahadi rivers, the tributaries of Gandak and Burhi Gandak, brought massive flash floods in areas we had never imagined to be affected.”
The state chief minister, Nitish Kumar, too said the recent disaster was “akin to flash floods”.
No one notices unseasonal floods, allege villagers
Whereas the government believes that the recent flash floods are a one-off event, the villagers living along the India-Nepal border told IndiaSpend that they have been dealing with them for years, and multiple times in a year.
“We face floods some 15-20 times in a year, but these are localised flash floods and never make it to the official records,” said Vinita Kumari, a resident of Poorvi Tola Rupwaliya village in Gaunaha block.
“Flash floods are directly proportional to the rainfall in the upper catchment area,” said Eklavya Prasad, managing trustee of Megh Pyne Abhiyan (MPA), a non-profit working on water and sanitation issues in the north Bihar. “Mostly flash floods go unreported because they do not always occur during the flood season.”
Last December, MPA carried out a study titled ‘Post Disaster Recovery: Assessment of Needs in Moderate Flood Conditions’ in Pashchim Champaran, Khagaria and Saharsa districts of north Bihar. It found that the small, pahadi rivers report flash floods up to 50-60 times in a year, causing extensive damage to property and crops destruction.
Take the case of Chegraha River that regularly brings floods Harkatwa village in Rupwaliya panchayat of Gaunaha between January and October. The normal width of the river is approximately 60 meters but this increases to 500-700m during monsoon and on days of heavy precipitation.
Harkatwa’s grief: 60 floods a year
Last year, Harkatwa faced 60 instances of flash floods. In the last 10 years, it has had 450 flash floods. Annually, the villagers lose over 50 acres of standing paddy crop, which amounts to a loss of Rs 720,000 per year. Sugarcane worth Rs 262,500 too is lost to flash floods every year.
Floods annually wash away stored foodgrains in Harkatwa – it has lost paddy worth Rs 540,000, wheat worth Rs 225,000 and pulses worth Rs 56,000 every year in this manner, according to the MPA study.
To deal with recurring crop losses, villagers regularly take private loans. The annual collective indebtedness caused by flash floods in Pashchimi Tola Rupwaliya village in Gaunaha block is estimated at Rs 10,08,000. For Naya Tola Manguraha, Poorvi Tola Rupwaliya and Manguraha villages, this figure is Rs 240,000, Rs 560,000, and Rs 720,000 respectively.
The total annual average financial loss due to recurring flash floods in Pashchimi Tola Rupwaliya village is estimated to be Rs 12,16,000. For Naya Tola Manguraha village, Poorvi Tola Rupwaliya and Manguraha village, the total annual losses are pegged at Rs 4,79,610, Rs 6,16,675 and Rs 13,89,050, respectively.
