The water resources department has issued a high alert and asked six districts - East Champaran, West Champaran, Gopalganj, Vaishali, Muzaffarpur and Saran - to prepare for any eventuality because of rising levels of the river Gandak in the next 48 hours.
"The department's liaison officer in Kathmandu told us today (Tuesday) of expected high discharge from the Gandak over the next 48 hours owing to rising water levels at two of its tributaries coming from Nepal," said Rajesh Kumar, engineer-in-chief cum additional commissioner, flood control. "We have issued a high alert for six districts the Gandak passes through," Rajesh told The Telegraph.
There's solace from the skies though. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday claimed rains would gradually reduce in intensity in Nepal and adjoining north-Bihar. "There was heavy rain in south Nepal and adjoining north Bihar over the past 10 days because the monsoon trough line was positioned on the Himalayan foothills," Ashish Sen, director at Patna meteorological centre, said. "But the trough line has now started moving southwards. It was passing over Daltonganj in Jharkhand on Tuesday. We expect scattered light to moderate rain in north Bihar and adjoining Nepal till end of week."
On Tuesday, the state disaster management department included Gopalganj to the list of flood-prone districts that already has eight others - Purnea, Kishanganj, Bhagalpur, Supal, Darbhanga, Madhepura, Araria and Katihar.
Though both departments monitoring the flood situation included more districts, there were no deaths on Tuesday.
The Central Water Commission's daily bulletin said the Bagmati (in Muzaffarpur), Kamla Balan (Madhubani), Kosi (Khagaria) and Mahananda (Purnea and Katihar) rivers were flowing above danger mark. Senior water resources department officials claimed the discharge from the Gandak and Kosi was around 2.5 lakh cusec (danger level 2 lakh cusec) on Tuesday.
The disaster management department said around 4.5 lakh people in nine districts were affected as on Tuesday evening. Disaster management special secretary Anirudh Kumar said a team each of the National Disaster Response Force and State Disaster Response Force have been positioned at Khagaria, Darbhanga, Supaul, Bhagalpur and Muzaffarpur. An NDRF unit was sent to a few blocks in Gopalganj district.
The flood situation in Darbhanga remained grim. With the steady rise of Kosi level, floodwater entered homes in the periphery of around 10 villages of Kiratpur block.
District level officers in the water resources department said the Kosi was expected to rise by 10cm on Wednesday because of incessant rain in Nepal's plains.
The situation in the villages between the embankments of Kamla Balan in Kusheshwarsthan east block, however, remained static today. A government and 13 private country boats were pushed into service in inundated villages.
As on Tuesday, around 52,166 people had taken shelter in relief camps opened by the disaster management department. Department special secretary Anirudh said around 360 quintals of beaten rice, 42.79 quintals of jaggery, 2,990 matchbox packets, 2,990 candles, 200 litres of kerosene, 3,861 plastic sheets and 520 food packets were distributed among the affected people.
Despite the fear of more water discharge from Nepal, water resources department officials said there was no pressure on any embankment in the state.
"Though some of the rivers are flowing close to danger mark. there is no pressure on their embankments. Besides, the department has positioned teams of engineers at all crucial locations on embankments staring at steep rise in water level," said Rajesh, additional flood commissioner, water resources department.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SANJAY KUMAR MISHRA
