Snakes enter homes, increasing South Asia flood torment*

Reuters
Friday, August 24, 2007; 5:12 AM

BHUBANESWAR, India (Reuters) - Thousands of snakes, forced out of their
pits by flood waters, have entered villagers' homes in eastern India
creating panic and adding to the torment caused by monsoon flooding,
officials said on Friday.

Around 1,850 people have been killed -- scores of them due to snake
bites -- since July when swollen rivers burst their banks, inundating
huge areas in eastern India and Bangladesh.

The others have been killed by drowning, diarrhea and in house collapses.

In India's impoverished state of Orissa, poisonous snakes like kraits
and cobras slithered into homes across dozens of villages in Balasore
district after nearby forest areas were inundated, forcing villagers to
flee with their cattle.

"We might survive the floods but there are numerous snakes crawling all
over the place," said Bijoy Pradhan, a villager who fled his home to dry
land, on Friday.

Two children died from snake bites overnight in the area as close to a
million people remained marooned across the state.

Authorities in Orissa said they were also battling an outbreak of
diarrhea that has killed six children since Thursday.

Millions of people are living in miserable conditions across eastern
India, drinking polluted water as taps and wells have been submerged by
flood waters, officials said.

ENDLESS MISERY

In Bihar state, one of India's poorest and most badly governed areas,
authorities found 19 more bodies since Thursday, pushing the death toll
to 420 since floods started in mid-July.

Authorities used loudspeakers to order villagers to evacuate homes in
Muzaffarpur district as swelling rivers breached mud embankments in many
places.

Angry villagers in Samastipur district stopped a train, fearing its
movement could damage a weak embankment along the track, and assaulted
officials who tried to stop them, witnesses and officials said.

"We are very afraid of more floods," said Kalavati Devi, a flood victim,
justifying stopping the train.

In neighboring West Bengal state, two children drowned as fresh flooding
forced thousands of people into relief camps.

Across the border in Bangladesh, hundreds have died over the past few
weeks due to massive flooding, with thousands of people suffering from
diarrhea.

Monsoon flooding occurs in the region each year but this year's
particularly heavy rainfall has led to some experts blaming climate
change as one possible cause.

(Additional reporting by a Reuters reporter in Patna)