Zubeda with her baby at Bathnaha station in Araria district. (Deepak Kumar)

Bathnaha (Bihar), Sept. 3: Her home swallowed by the hungry Kosi, Zubeda gave birth to her first baby in a tiny, cramped boat. She can’t stop thanking God for his mercy.

“I fell unconscious. But Insha Allah, others in the boat took care of me and my baby. Khuda ki khair se hum zinda hain (By the mercy of God, we are alive),” Zubeda, 23, says, sitting under a polythene shed at Bathnaha railway station in Araria district, her home for the last four days.

Zubeda was among thousands of women and children from her village, Lalpur Goat, who had been herded into country boats as the water rose above their homes. She delivered her baby sandwiched among 13 persons, including the boatman.

The men decided to swim across or use rafts. Zubeda’s husband Abdul Kalam, 25, was among the swimmers. But there is no news of him yet.

“Pata nahin mere shauhar kahan hain. Abhi tak bachche ko nahin dekha hai (I don’t know where my husband is. He has not seen his son yet),” she sobs.

Abdul Jabbar, who swam his way to the station, consoles her, saying Kalam is known to be a good swimmer. “He might have strayed somewhere. He will come.”

About 3,000 people from Kusharmal and Lalpur Goat villages in Supaul district have taken shelter at the railway station. “The two villages had 4,000 homes and more than 20,000 people. We don’t know where our fellow villagers are. What we are sure of is that all our cattle have been devoured by the Kosi,” says Upendra Ram, a resident of Kusharmal.

As they huddled under the polythene sheets, the villagers couldn’t help but lament the sudden turn in fortune. “We had a good house, and cattle and farms to feed us the whole year. We were happy farmers before the Kosi swallowed our village,” says Jabbar.

Apart from the polythene sheets, there were not many signs of relief work at the station.

“We have set up four toilets and four hand pumps,” says R.N. Jha, an official of the public health engineering department.

Four toilets for 3,000 people? The stench that sweeps across the station is unbearable. But Jha says there’s nothing he can do. “DM sahib se puchhiye. Mujhe jo aadesh tha kar diya (Ask the DM. I have done what I was ordered to do),” he retorts.

Today, the villagers’ only relief comes in the form of 45-year-old Laxmi Devi. The mukhiya of a nearby panchayat has brought six bags of food. Hundreds of hands pounce on them to get a morsel. It will be their succour till another good samaritan comes along.