Bihar: Gandak breaches bund, floods 45 East Champaran villages

MOTIHARI/BAGAHA/KHAGARIA: Fresh rainfall in the catchment areas of swollen rivers over the last 24 hours aggravated flood scenario in 10 north Bihar districts on Friday.
In East Champaran, the turbulent Gandak breached its left embankment in a stretch of 160 feet at Bhawanipur village (45km away from Motihari) under Sangrampur police station in the wee hours of Friday. East Champaran DM Shirshat Kapil Ashok and water resource department officials are camping at the site.
The DM said two teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) with four motorboats are carrying out rescue and relief operations in the flood-affected areas.
The gushing water from the breach spread fast in around 45 villages of Sangrampur, Kotawa, Kesariya and Areraj blocks of East Champaran district and Sahebganj block in Muzaffarpur district. Thousands of people, including women and children, have taken shelter at safer places like schools and temples and some on NH-28.
In other parts of East Champaran, floodwaters overtopped Areraj-Hajipur road at five places. Road traffic was disrupted on Barauni-Lucknow NH-28 on Friday after the swollen Gandak eroded an approach road near first pillar of Dumariya road bridge, which connects north Bihar to Uttar Pradesh.
Mohammad Irfan, executive engineer of NH-28 of Motihari division, said flood protection work was underway to repair the approach road slab.
No improvement was visible in flood-affected areas in Bagaha and several other blocks in West Champaran district even after five days due to continuous discharge of water in Gandak river from Nepal side through the Valmikinagar barrage. The discharge from Valmikinagar barrage on Friday afternoon stood at 2.42 lakh cusecs. Floodwater has been stagnant in hundreds of villages in the district from five days.
Also, around 5,000 people in West Champaran and Kushinagar district in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh have been affected due to breach in the rail bund at Shripatinagar. Also, a jamindari bandh over Shikarahna river breached in Barawa-Semara panchayat under Majhaulia block on Thursday. Mukhiya Sandip Giri said 3,000 people have been affected and their paddy and sugarcane crops submerged.
No let-up was reported in the overall flood scenario in Khagaria district as well with Kosi and Bagmati flowing above the danger mark. Etmadi, Balaitha, Telihar, Dighaun, Kurban and Kanjari are some of the affected panchayats under Beldaur block.
According to official sources, altogether 883 villages in 27 panchayats spread over seven blocks have been affected by the floodwaters while standing ‘kharif” and paddy crops over 2,050 acres of land have been damaged. DM Alok Ranjan Ghosh said three community kitchens and equal number of relief centres were running in flood-affected areas.
In Darbhanga, as many as 107 panchayats spread over eight blocks of the district have been affected. The flood-hit population in the district stands at 83,173 in 281 villages. Officials said 162 community kitchens are being run at different places, feeding at least 42,559 people. Train services between Darbhanga and Samastipur was suspended after floodwaters touched girder bridge number-16 near Hayaghat. DM Thyagrajan S M said Hanumannagar and Hayaghat blocks are getting affected due to swollen Bagmati.
In Sitamarhi, incessant rainfall in the last 48 hours has thrown life out of gear and every river in the district was flowing above the danger mark on Friday.
(With inputs from B K Jha in Darbhanga and S K Singh in Sitamarhi)