Annual Floods – UP & Bihar

Year after year, the visuals of marooned people, particularly east UP & Bihar are disturbing to watch. Why, you may or ought to wonder, doesn’t anyone do something about it? Don’t science & technology, & wealth of modern India have a permanent solution to at least mitigate this recurring annual suffering if not totally eradicate it? So far, measures, if any, taken in this regard seem to have been ineffective. In fact, they have compounded the suffering as we shall soon reveal. Let us examine the issue in totality & historically to reveal the various facets of floods in this region.

Is this phenomenon a natural one or man made? Today, we can say that it is both. However, for centuries in the past, these areas & the banks of the mighty Ganga have been witness to flooding. Excessive rainfall in what now constitutes Uttarakhand & astride the course of Ganga & Yamuna has always been one constant factor, the impact of which was historically felt right up to Bangla Desh since time immemorial. This situation was further aggravated by similar downpours in Nepal whose rivers drain into UP & Bihar. Why, you may ask, wasn’t this scourge a prominent subject to be recorded in the annals of history? Did the people dwelling in the effected areas suffer loss of dwellings, livestock, food grain & human life? Was there any such loss suffered year after year by these people? Did they have to rebuild their hutments, replenish their livestock, & procure food grain for eating & sowing year after year? Or, did they show foresight & resilience to over come the scourge of floods? These are relevant questions. Why has the magnitude of the problem suddenly become so large that the local Army formations have to keep several Internal Security Columns of Infantry & Engineers, along with other support services, as well as Air Force helicopters in readiness to move in aid of the local government? Aid of this nature has become a matter of routine. It may appear unique as a state of direst emergency to the newly posted army commanders in the chain of command justifying imminent extension of aid to the marooned victims.

The entire subject was deftly dealt with by Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav when he explained the matter in his characteristic but convincing rustic style. I respect his opinion in matters relating to life in Bihar for obvious reasons. I wish to share his views on this subject.

Mr. Laloo confided that indeed, his people were quite used to the ravages of flood. It was not a new phenomenon they were confronting. They in turn had learnt to effectively cope with such situations, including the worst scenarios. How? We shall explain later. In the very early stages when humans had not applied the modern scientific techniques to tame the rising waters, there was no real impediment to the flood waters. Thus, all the water overflowing the Ganges, Ghagara, Jharahi, Daha, Gandaki, Dhamati or Dhamahi, Siahi, Nikari, Sona, Gandak, Burhi Gandak, Kosi etc spread evenly all over north Bihar. In this manner the effect of flood water was swiftly spread over the entire region. Pointing to his knees, he said that the water rarely rose above that level. The rich alluvial soil spread evenly all over, returning bumper crops in the following cropping season. (The latter claim is true even today as corroborated by a local army doctor who owns large tracts of land. The doctor reiterated that they merely sowed seeds without tilling the soil!).

The locals, with generations of experience, had studied the behavior of the rivers during the monsoons to correctly gauge the maximum height of the surging waters. Accordingly, they raised a small mound high & large enough to accommodate their hutment, livestock & food grain for up to six months. Seems plausible as in the earlier times there was no Air Force or Army rescue & relief column, or engineer boats with OBMs to depend on.

When I asked him how they coped with their drinking water problem, he said that each of such hillocks had a well in the centre that provided them water. I have seen the entire stretch of northern Bihar, from west to east reduced to a massive lake dotted with countless islands like the ones Mr. Laloo described. Indeed these hillocks were above the water level. The prevailing winds were so strong that our Army engineers found the resultant waves unsafe to launch their boats for rescue & relief. The locals were sagacious enough to even raise portions of the cart track leading to their village to the same level to allow safety to the marooned if required. This helped our operation as the Air Force helicopters aligned their flight in line with these tracks & dropped the relief supplies along it. Mr. Laloo also revealed that the locals could survive for fairly long period on Sattu & Chana.

If that be the case, why has it lately become imperative to annually clamor for hundreds of crores of rupees as relief from the Centre accompanied by immediate demand for aid from military authorities? Here are some more interesting facts. Much of the land north of the Ganges is owned by powerful landlords. As per Mr. Laloo, some decades back a modern technique was applied to arrest the problem. How & why it was approved & implemented baffles me. A massive exercise was undertaken to construct concrete or stone filled bunds along the course of the major tributaries of the Ganges, which flowed from the Nepal border into Bihar! This had two highly adverse repercussions. Firstly, all the water canalized into constricted canal suddenly swelled the waters of the Ganges & naturally created havoc. Secondly, the land north of the Ganges was deprived of the rich alluvial soil. Land thus gradually became infertile & fallow. Thus, some affected parties deliberately breached the bunds contiguous to their land. Over a period of time these bunds no longer served their purpose. Mr. Laloo expressed dissent for this project for the various reasons just listed.

Mr. Laloo once remarked in jest that the people here do not want roads & electricity. What would happen to these roads if they were submerged under water for months? Also what would happen to the electric poles & lines under these circumstances? When I visited a Kargil widow’s home north of Darbhanga, I asked this question to a local. He emphatically stated what Mr. Laloo had said. “What will we do with vehicles on these mud tracks? What we need is bullock carts & lanterns”. No, he was not being sarcastic. He was earnest about it. His bullock cart navigated with greater ease than my jeep!

While the Homo sapiens are planning for Mars, how can we tame the forces of nature here? Well, in Bihar something enormous has been done in the past to protect Patna. For miles, the bank astride the Ganga has been protected by a massive concrete wall. It has sluice gates to allow water to drain into the Ganges from the south towards the north. When the Ganga is in spate, these sluice gates are shut. Piles of sand bags are placed to reinforce the gates. This gives rise to another problem. The rain water of the city collects within the city converting individual colonies to be waterlogged fro months. The same logic, Mr. Laloo’s, applies here too. Earlier Patna was not as sprawling as it is today. (Asia’s largest residential colony is within Patna. It’s called Kankarbagh. Interestingly, all its roads are nothing better than “kankar” or stones. Yet most houses are truly posh, opulent & spotlessly clean within their four walls. All their garbage is dumped on the road which is not their concern – so much like Doon!). Thus several colonies are inundated for the entire duration of Monsoons. So, in the past water spread all over evenly, even though the entire area was water logged. Now, this natural drainage is impeded & hence myriad problems arise relating to water pollution, mosquitoes, & heavy fog in the winters disrupting air traffic. (I once traveled from Delhi to Patna to find myself back at Delhi! On another occasion I had a free trip to Kolkata thanks to the fog).

Once again I quote Dr. Satendra Singh IFS as it is so relevant to the problems Patna faces due to flooding. Here unplanned or uncoordinated development has been accompanied by disaster! A highway cuts across the southern limits of Patna in west-easterly direction. It is an elevated highway almost as high as the second floor of neighboring houses. For miles there is no channel to allow water from the south to drain into the Ganges that lies north – its natural course is blocked by colonies & individual boundary walls. Astride this highway I have seen people commute by boats from their water logged homes to the road!

To me, as things stand today, a solution to the floods in east UP & Bihar is as frustrating as the solution to flooding in Mumbai. After all, one can’t empty the water in the latter case into the Arabian Sea. Likewise, the Ganges which is itself swollen, cannot accept the flood waters of its tributaries. Man has chosen to dwell in areas that are water-logged marshes during the monsoons. These marshes have been the traditional feeding grounds for the migratory Asian Openbill Stork, Anastomus oscitans, for time immemorial. They feed on the abundant supply of mollusks, frogs & insects, & nest in close clusters on Ficus (Pilkan) trees within Danapur (earlier known as Little England). The citizens of Patna & surrounding areas will obviously have to adopt the lifestyle of this stork – wade through water-logged marshy land for several months in a year.

I have first hand experience about the other form of relief provided during floods that must be eating up most of the aid provided by the Centre. During a reconnaissance mission, I landed at a location not far from Gorakhpur, close to the flooded area on the border of UP & Bihar. A police jeep took me to one site of a breach in the bund. I walked up to the very site of breach. The concerned Secretary of Bihar, a lady, some Mrs. Singh was at the breach sitting under blue polyurethane sheet! I was very impressed. The breach was about 100 yards wide & threatening to expand every hour. The force of the disgorging water was so strong that all the boulders that were being dropped to bridge the gap were being swept hundreds of yards away. In this manner several truck loads of boulders were rendered useless. Another experiment was undertaken. With the help of boats, the workers labored hard & erected a parallel row of bamboo fence downstream of the breach. Having done that, they now ferried boulders in boats & dropped them between the bamboo barricades. Thus the force of the gushing water from the mouth of the breach was somewhat reduced. Now they had the difficult task of plugging the actual breach. Glancing at the expanse lying ahead of me in the east I could see nothing but murky water heavily laden with alluvial soil from the upper tracts. As I was to do an aerial survey of the flood affected area to allocate Army resources, I took leave from this courageous lady Secretary whose unpleasant & seemingly impossible job was to plug the gap & account for unlimited trucks of boulders.

On the way back, the police driver shocked me by stating that, on paper, several hundred truck loads of boulders are shown as relief while in actuality only a small percentage is delivered. This he said was an annual feature. I refuse to believe this. How can anyone squander & misappropriate crores of Rupees released as aid for the flood victims?

As you may have concluded, the problem of floods in Bihar & eastern UP defies solution. The purpose of this article is not to scoff at Bihar’s demand for aid during floods. Far from it, I wish to suggest some more effective measures to ensure that aid, in whatever form reaches almost all those marooned, with minimum cost without resorting to the insufficient aid flown & dropped by helicopters. During the floods surface transport is restricted to travel by boats. Helicopters cannot land anywhere in the vast expanse of sea in north Bihar. Obviously relief cannot reach all the affected people. A large number of needy marooned villagers do not get relief. The state Government, at the end of helicopter sorties & deployment of Army columns pat their backs for a job well done. Files are closed to be opened next year & every following year.

The relief material consists of waterproof gunny bags, of uniform weight (perhaps 5 to 8 kgs each?) containing sattu, chana, jaggery, candles, match boxes & other such like useful items. Air Force helicopters are loaded with this cargo to be dropped at various marooned villages. The crew must ensure that the bags do not land on the frenzied crowd below, or into the water. Often the latter happens & occasionally the former. Sometimes a small stretch of elevated track leading to the village is available. It is here that a fairly large crowd is often gathered to grab the maximum bags. The helicopter takes a circuit to align itself to this track to offload the cargo along its length. Darwin’s theory – survival of the fittest – is on full display. The strongest of the boys always manage to retrieve the maximum bags. The old, women & children stand empty handed in despair while the helicopter moves to another location. I always wondered what the fate was of the old, infirm, & women folk who did not have such able bodied husbands or sons! Young men can be seen diving fearlessly into the water to retrieve the bags – some of which inevitably fall into it. How can relief be provided to all the needy in the given time? There is limit to the number of helicopter sorties & Army boats that can be provided. So, how can we be sure that relief has reached, at least, most of the people? The present system in vogue is an avoidable burden on the exchequer.

Since annual floods are sure to occur in Bihar, just as sure as the sunrise tomorrow morning, I would recommend that relief material, duly packed, based on the number in each household, is moved by road during the dry season, before the onset of rains, & distributed to the villages under proper supervision. It will cost much less to the Centre & State. Even after this pro-active step is taken towards mitigation of woes due to floods, aid from Army/Air force must continue but with one exception – it will be target specific, surgical & effective.

As stated by Mr. Laloo, getting marooned is no big deal for the locals. They have spent whole generations & life coping with it & rarely drown unless a boat capsizes. Not only do they co-exist with rising waters but also with a variety of snakes in the same trees that provide the only dry place to man & reptiles in emergent cases. This relief provided is nothing but a hedge against unusual circumstances of acute shortage. It must be continued. The landlords may be affluent, probably living in safer areas, but the locals live under most adverse weather conditions & general deprivation. Hence, till such time floods recur, all possible steps should be taken to alleviate their problems prudently – not like a “Seagull Manager” who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps all over & flies out!