Kosi and Bihar

Image: TOI

The rain started to gain intensity. I heard my parents trying to close the window panes. I went to their bedroom in order to help them. My father had finished fortifying the room against the rain. It was 3 am. I smiled at him.

“How will you go to office in the morning? If it rains like this the entire city will be under water by that time. Plus your scooter is at service station. This place has turned into hell.” To tell you the truth I have rarely seen rain with this intensity. Patna, the capital city of Bihar, is facing its worst monsoon in recent times. The entire city was flooded for 12-14 days. Things were not much better when I reached my native place to enjoy a well deserved week long holiday.

His lips curled into a half smile. “I will manage. It is still not that bad. There will be means of transportation available in the morning. Remember it is a capital city.”

“Right now, it doesn’t look like one to me. The infrastructure is crumbling. High court was right when it termed the condition as hellish.”

“Just think of the millions caught in the fury of Kosi and you will realize that this may not be hell.” There was a brief silence. In that moment I was struck by the bluntness of the statement. It is true that life is hellish for the people hit by the worst flood nation has witnessed in more than a century. In that silence we prayed for their lives and safety.

“Let us hope that all will be able to survive this calamity.” My father said as he patted my back.

“Yeah. But you better go to sleep now. Otherwise you will get late to the office.” I tried to smile.

River Kosi, “The sorrow of Bihar”, has inundated 16 districts of Bihar in what can be termed as the worst flood of all times. I hope that most of the people will be aware of at least the first part which states that almost half of Bihar is presently submerged. A few days back when I talked to some of my friends, they were unaware of even this. What many of you may not be aware is the intensity of the disaster. The present generation in northern Bihar which grew up listening to the folklores of the ferocity of Kosi and the disasters it brought to the place never would have imagined that they will become a part of one of those tales of disasters. A folk song in Maithili goes like this (Times of India: 31/08/2008)

"Kamla bigdal, Kosi bigdal, bigaid gail Bhutahi-Balan. Baal bachcha sab duibb maral, ruis gela bhagwan (The Kamla has got furious, so have the Kosi and the Bhutahi-Balan. Our children and families have been drowned. The gods have turned their heads away)

Picture these: Kilometers wide channels of raging water engulfing villages after villages; Around 40 lakh people affected and rendered homeless by this calamity (This is more than half the population of Himachal Pradesh and almost thrice the population of Goa: Courtesy Wikipedia); Millions of people (including children and olds) have not eaten anything for past one week or even more; The flow of water is so high that even the rescue boats are not able to reach the remote places in order to save lives (2 boats drowned in the process killing many aboard those boats); With regular release of water from Nepal, the river is swelling everyday engulfing new areas (According to the latest reports, the outflow of Kosi’s water into Ganga has increased and it will not allow the river’s flood areas to expand abruptly); The town of Madhepura which had 1 feet water in the morning was submerged more than 6 feet deep in the evening; 103 roads have been cut-off; several bridges are destroyed; Such vast is the expanse of water that even when the people decide to move out on their own, they are finding it difficult to reach a safe land.

And if these descriptions are not enough then there are stories of human pain and suffering. A man handed his son to his father with the parting words “Iska khayal rakhna” (Take care of him). “I will”, his father promised him. That man saw his father and his son moving to safety on a boat with tearful eyes. Something else was stored for the family though. The river in its fury snatched the grandson away from the old man. He wailed helplessly as he thought of his final promise made to his son. In another incident a man braved through the dangerous waters, risking his life, to reach the district headquarters. He asked for the help of the administrators to rescue 25 people of his clan trapped in the roof of his house. The administrators could do nothing apart from expressing helplessness for the lack of resources.

Why am I writing this? You can get this from any of the TV channels and newspapers. I am writing this because I am anguished by the lack of proper awareness or concern for the plight of those fighting for their lives. I want to stress that the magnitude of this calamity is of the same level, if not more than that, of the tsunami or the earthquake at Bhuj in 2001. What was seen there was immediate media response and mobilization of relief work from across the globe. Unfortunately the national media took too long to gauge the seriousness of the issue and it was only after this disaster was declared the ‘national calamity’ that they started extensive coverage. Same is true with regards to many relief agencies. Their initial response time was much slower than what was at other places of disasters. Now just do not come up with explanation that since it was Bihar there was a lag. True that Bihar lacks in infrastructure and had insufficient resources to deal with the disaster of this extent and this has a role to play in the slow progress of relief work but then many international relief agencies have experience of working in sub-Saharan Africa where the conditions are not better. There is something else which is amiss this time. I distinctly remember Vivek Oberoi ‘proudly’ working for the distressed people and even adopting a village for rehabilitation. Aamir Khan did the same with a village in Bhuj though the reasons were different. He had shot Lagaan there and had moral responsibility to adopt that village for rehabilitation. But apart from Shatrughan Sinha’s appeal for mobilization of resources I am yet to hear from any other celebrity (Abhinav Bindra has pledged to donate a sum of Rs. 5 lakhs). At least the stars of Bhojpuri film industry need to come for the help of the state.

I know that by indulging in these I am diverting from the matter in hand. The crux is that a sizeable number of Indians are facing their worst crisis: A fight for survival. They are rendered helpless by the fury of a river which has breached the embankments in Nepal and has taken a course it had left 200 years ago. It is different from the disasters at Bhuj and that of Tsunami in a way because the impact is increasing every day. There, the nature hit once and then there was calm so that the rescue and rehabilitation was not hampered. The relief operations here are hampered by the difficult weather situation including heavy rains and the burgeoning river. This operation might lead to one of the world’s biggest human evacuations ever. The relief camps will have to run for 5-6 months or even more catering to the need of 15-20 lakhs homeless people. The reason: Kosi usually swells again during the month of October. Also since the river has breached embankments and changed its course, the chance of retreat is less as in the case of normal floods. People there need help. I know many of you are willing to help and many would have helped by now. I am not saying one should go there and help. Help can be in form of mobilizing the resources in terms of money. Even small contributions to funds like Chief Minister Flood relief fund or to any NGOs or other relief agencies working there would go a long way in determining the fate of millions affected by this flood. But the help need not be monetary: A group of 35 rafters from Darjeeling is providing invaluable service to the people over there. And finally even if we are not able to do these for those people: We can always pray for their lives and safety. I have written this so that I can urge all who read this to at least be concerned of the millions of lives trapped in floodwaters and pray for them.

P.S: At mess table today, a friend of mine asked me about the flood situation. I explained him the situation when came the statement that stunned me “I have heard that you people pray that flood comes so that you can get money.” I know that Bihar has a bad image throughout the country. But is the image this bad? Many thoughts came to my mind. But I chose to underplay the incident. It may not be entirely his fault anyway. So it’s true that Bihar has a bad image. But it is also true that people of Bihar are facing one of toughest crisis of their lives.

Does Bihar need help? Yes it does.

Does Bihar need money? Yes it does.

Does Bihar need sympathy? Maybe yes.

Does Bihar need pity? Absolutely not.

As my mother put it when I rued that all the development made in last couple of years have been lost – “Nothing is lost. There should be spirit to fight back the odds. We will rise again. It will take some more time to come back to the track of development but finally we will. We are not the ones to be bogged down by the difficulties.” So this is to the hope that people of Bihar will survive one of the worst nightmares of their lives and will again start moving towards the path of development and prosperity.