Bihar: Fresh rainfall rings alarm bells, 75 lakh hit by floods

PATNA: Fresh rainfall in parts of the state, which are already reeling from floods for over a month, rang alarm bells on Tuesday even as the population affected by the deluge crossed the 75-lakh mark.
According to the bulletin issued by the Patna Meteorological Centre on Tuesday evening, light to moderate rainfall occurred at many places across the past 24 hours.A few places in north Bihar received heavy rainfall, including Forbesganj (70mm) and Araria (30mm). Patna also received 50.3mm rainfall on Tuesday.
The all-India weather bulletin issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast widespread rainfall in Bihar on Wednesday and Thursday.
“The monsoon trough line is passing through Dehri in Bihar, Dhanbad in Jharkhand, Kolkata in West Bengal and then south eastwards towards Bay of Bengal. The trough line along with moisture incursion from Bay of Bengal is likely to lead to light to moderate rainfall in Bihar along with heavy rainfall at one or two places in north- east and south- eastern parts of the state over the next three to four days,” an official at the Patna met centre said.
The official added that a few districts in north Bihar, including Gopalganj, West Champaran and East Champaran, which are already severely affected by floods, are also expected to receive showers in the coming days.
Though the weathermen have predicted more showers in the coming days, there is some respite in terms of falling or static trend in water level in major rivers in north Bihar, which have led to floods in low- lying areas in as many as 126 blocks spread over 16 districts.
As per the daily flood bulletin issued by the water resources department (WRD) on Tuesday evening, the swollen Bagmati had come down below danger level at four out of five flood gauges in Sitamarhi district. It, however, continued to flow above the danger level at one flood gauge each in Sitamarhi, Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga districts. Nevertheless, the river showed a falling trend at three places and static trend at the remaining four places in the three districts.
The turbulent Burhi Gandak also showed a falling trend at all four flood gauges in Muzaffarpur, Samastipur and Khagaria districts; though it was flowing above the danger level at all four places.
Kamla Balan, however, came below the danger level at one flood gauge in Madhubani but remained above at another place in the district. Khiroi, one of the rivers of Adhwara group, which wreaked havoc in Darbhanga, is showing a falling trend at two flood gauges for almost a week now but it continues to flow above the danger mark at both places.