Flood situation in Bihar on Wednesday eased a bit with some rivers showing a receding trend, while there was no fresh report of deaths from the flood-affected districts.
Altogether, 130 persons have so far lost their lives in this year’s monsoon while more than 88 lakh people have been badly hit in Bihar’s 13 flood-affected districts.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who held a telephonic conversation with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on the flood situation, has assured all possible help to those affected by nature’s fury.
Of the total casualties, Sitamarhi and Madhubani top the chart with 37 and 30 deaths respectively. Both the districts share a border with Nepal, which releases several lakh cusecs of water every year, which, in turn, inundates Bihar areas.
Most of the rivers which originate from Nepal, including Bagmati, Gandak and Burhi Gandak, flow through the state thereby inundating several lakh hectares of land between July and September.
“There has been no report of any fresh death from two other affected districts – West Champaran and Katihar,” said a senior official of the Disaster Management Department. “Altogether 88.46 lakh people have been hit by this year’s flood. Food is being served to the affected persons through community kitchen,” he said and hastened to add that "NDRF, SDRF and IAF personnel were working overtime in carrying out relief and rescue operations."
“The NDRF 9th battalion personnel successfully evacuated a three-year-old child, who was a victim of snakebite in East Champaran. The tiny-tot was rushed to Motihari hospital where he was successfully operated upon. The child is now stable,” said Vijay Sinha, Commandant of the 9th battalion.