Land erosion caused by river Kosi at Piparpanti village under Naugachia sub-division in Bhagalpur. Picture by Amit Kumar

Naugachia, July 26: Flashes of Kosi gobbling up agricultural land in 2009 revisited siblings Puja and Payal Kumari of Madruni village under Rangra block today, as they left the hamlet with their parents.

Like them, people of several other villages along the banks of Kosi under Naugachia sub-division have started migrating after the swelling river swept away large parts of topsoil. Hundreds of people in scores of villages in Rangra block and half-a-dozen others under the Kharik and Narayanpur blocks have shifted fearing the worst this monsoon.

“Bhago (flee) has been on the lips of people in the region who have started migrating in large numbers to save themselves from the wrath of the river. Children and women in particular have become the worst sufferers of the panic. Our entire land vanished under the riverbed. We lost everything, including my books and copies,” said Ravi Kumar, a Class V student at Gopalpur Tola village.

“I have collected my books, clothes and other items before the river could swallow my house,” Khushbu Kumari, another student of Class VII at Piparpanti hamlet under Kharik block, said.

Kosi gobbled up 12 houses in the hamlet over the past two days and more than 40 families have already migrated.

“Look, how the river has already swallowed 7-10 feet stretch of fertile land in the locality within the past 24 hours,” said Nirmal Yadavat of Piparpanti. Another villager, Bisun Yadav of Dhandia, a nearby hamlet, narrated the same story of massive land erosion by the river within the past 24 hours.

The superintending engineer, state water resources department, Durga Nandan Choudhuary, admitted that since the river has developed a round shape in its flow near Piparpanti, the intensity of erosion has increased. Kailu Sardar, the chief engineer of the department, said since everybody was busy with flood-prevention measures at Gopalpur block in the sub-division, where the Ganga played havoc, the department could not pay much attention to areas dotting Kosi earlier.

“The department has initiated flood-control measures on a war footing on the banks of Kosi with porcupine technique now,” Sardar claimed. According to him, flood-fighting measures have been started at Sakucha village. Choudhuary said special measures for protecting Trimuhan embankment from Sakucha to Baisi have been started.