In this two-part series, Dinesh Kumar Mishra highlights the challenges faced by the much abused Bangmati River in Bihar because of solid waste, industrial effluents, encroachment and rampant construction along the river's banks.
At least 51 people, including an Indian national, have died in Nepal during protests against corruption and a ban on social media. The violence included attacks on government buildings and political offices.
The boat was carrying 30 children, and 20 of them have so far been rescued, they said.
The swollen Bagmati River has breached its embankment in Bihar's Sitamarhi and Muzaffarpur districts, flooding hundreds of villages and forcing the villagers to take shelter at higher planes for safety.Official sources in Sitamarhi said on Saturday that the Bagmati River breached a dozen-feet stretch of the embankment at Tilakrajpur early on Saturday morning, inundating dozens of villages and affecting over 10,000 people. Some people were feared drowned.
Many low-lying areas in West Bengal's sub-Himalayan region were reeling from a flood-like situation while major rivers in Bihar were flowing above the danger level at several places as unabated heavy rain lashed the country's eastern parts on Sunday.
Three hundred and sixteen families unsettled by the Bagmati river project in Bihar 40 years ago are still waiting to be rehabilitated. Dinesh Kumar Mishra brings you their plight.
He also performed puja at Basuki Naag temple in the premises by pouring milk.
Deputy Secretary (Relief) Upendra Sharma said one Indian Air Force chopper and a column of the army comprising around 60 men with motorboats were pressed into service Saturday morning to provide relief and evacuate people.
In addition to that, 68 people still remain missing, with 100 more sustaining injuries in the disaster.
Dinesh Kumar Mishra narrates the travails of a village uprooted by the mighty Bagmati.
More than 45 lakh people in 30 out of the total 38 districts of the state have been affected by the calamity in two phases since last month, according to the Disaster Management Department.
The flood situation has worsened in northern Bihar's Sitamarhi and Muzaffarpur districts as relief and rescue operations have been badly hit by continuous rains and rising water levels. The overflowing river has submerged several villages and many villagers have been forced to leave their homes to seek a safer shelter. Over two lakh people in nearly 200 villages have been affected, and the situation has been worsened by another embankment breach of Lakhendei River.
The district administration has banned the sale of motor fuels without a permit from the district supply officer in order to stock reserves of petrol and diesel for vehicles to be used for flood-fighting and relief operations.
The worst-hit Sitamarhi district accounted for 22 deaths.
The bus, on its way to Sitamarhi from Muzaffarpur, plunged into the river as the driver lost control of the vehicle while trying to save a motor cyclist, they said.
Bodies of 26 people who drowned after two boats capsized in Bihar were recovered on Tuiesday even as a search was on to trace around 50 missing people, the police said.
Hundreds of people are facing a shortage of food, safe drinking water and sanitation in Kathmandu following the natural disaster, according to eyewitnesses.
The Union minister, along with some others, was on way to Thalwara in Hayaghat block when the engine of the motorboat fell silent and the vessel was being swept downstream by the strong current.
The bodies of four Indians, who were among 22 people killed in the Tara Air plane crash in Nepal's mountainous Mustang district, were cremated on Thursday at the sacred Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu.
With major rivers in northern Bihar rising menacingly at several places in the state following heavy rains in catchment areas and discharge into the rivers from Nepal, thousands of people have been forced to abandon their homes and hundreds of villages have been flooded, officials said.
A sombre reminder of the enormity of the tragedy that has now claimed over 10,000 lives.
The overall flood situation in Bihar remained grim on Monday with major rivers in spate. Around 1.5 million people have been affected by the deluge in 11 north Bihar districts, where floods have claimed 52 lives so far, official sources said.
One more person died in floods in Patna district, taking the toll due to inundation in Bihar to 10 even as major rivers on Tuesday showed receding trend.
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Flood victims have been fighting for survival and living in temporary shelters nearby railway tracks with lack of food items. They are yet to get any help from the government, reports M I Khan.
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However, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said that Modi's visit to Nepal was decided soon after K P Sharma Oli's election as the prime minister in February.
The toll in the Bihar floods on Friday rose to 96 with three children drowning in Begusarai district as the overall situation improved with the major rivers maintaining a receding trend, official sources said. The three children drowned in the River Bagmati at Kaura village under Gadhpura police station in flood-hit Begusarai district on Friday morning.
UNICEF estimates that almost 16 million children and their families are in urgent need of life-saving support. Since mid-August, there have been at least 1,288 reported deaths.
Central Water Commission sources said the situation continued to be grim following incessant rains in the catchment areas of these rivers.
With major rivers overflowing due to incessant rainfall, life has come to a stand-still for people in parts of Bihar and Assam.
Major rivers like Bagmati, Kosi, Kresh and Gandak continued to recede, a Central Water Commission report said.
Chhath, a festival to worship the Sun God, was celebrated on Saturday with lakhs of devotees, mostly women, thronging the ghats of numerous rivers in Bihar. The ghats of the Ganga, Kosi, Kiul, Bagmati, Kamla Balan, Gandak and Burhi Gandak, besides thousands of ponds, were thronged by worshippers, who offered prasad cooked in pure ghee and mixed with sugar, raisins, coconuts, flour, fruits and sugarcane. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's sister led the family in performing puja.
Nearly two million population spread over eight districts in Bihar continued to reel under the impact of floods as the overall situation remained unchanged with major rivers, including Punpun, Bagmati and Kosi, in spate.
Over two million people in Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi, Sheohar, Saharsa, East Champaran, Supaul, Darbhanga, Madhubani, Patna, Katihar and Bhagalpur are reeling under the impact of the calamities
The boat capsized midstream while sailing to the other side from Duba Ghat, possibly following a sudden discharge of water from a barrage in upper Nepal, officials said.
The floods have affected 31 lakh people across 13 districts and also widely damaged crops in different parts of the state.
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