Mass migration in flood-hit Bihar

Bhagalpur (Bihar), Sep 3 (ANI): Hundreds of thousands of people in flood-hit areas of Bihar have started migrating with their belongings.

"Our houses are submerged in water. We don't know what to do if we stay back. So, we are going away, but we don't know where to go and which train to board. We have to think about what we would eat also," said Tripurari Kumar, a resident.

While the state authorities are trying to provide relief material to the flood-affected people, they have also been urging them to migrate to the relief camps or to other safer places.

Mass migration is taking place, mainly in the worst flood hit districts of Saharsa, Bhagalpur, Supaul, Araria and Mashepura.

The panic stricken people are migrating, some of them aimlessly, by any available means of transportation, be it a cycle, bullock cart, tractor or even an overcrowded train.

Officials said that over three million people have been displaced from their homes and at least 90 killed by floods after the Bihar's 'river of sorrow' burst a dam in Nepal, swamping hundreds of villages in the state and destroying 100,000 hectares of farmlands.

The flooding, the worst in 50 years, was caused after torrential monsoon rains in the catchment areas caused the swollen Kosi River to breach a dam in Nepal, from where it originates. (ANI)