Perilous Times and Climate Change
Fierce Floods wreck havoc in North India
HT Correspondents, Hindustan Times
Lucknow, September 21, 2010
Teeming rivers and incessant rain in north India have left tens of
thousands of people marooned and forced a similar number to abandon
their homes. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Uttarakhand are the worst
affected states with hundreds of villages submerged and several dead.
Road and railway traffic in
the states were also disrupted.
In Bihar’s Gopalganj district, the level of the Gandak river, which had
breached its embankments in Baterdah, receded on Tuesday.
The district administration set up five mega relief camps on Monday to
accommodate 80,000 people displaced by the floods. The number of
marooned villages has also come significantly down.
In western UP, the rivers Ganga, Yamuna, Sharda, Ram Ganga and Kosi
continued to rise on Tuesday, inundating Moradabad, Shahjehanpur,
Lakhimpur Khiri, Barielly, Meerut, Saharanpur, Bulandshahr, Baghpat,
Bijnaur and Pilibhit.
In eastern part of the state, the rising waters of Ghaghra, Budhi
Rapti, Kuawano and Sharda rivers flooded a number of villages in
Bahraich, Siddharthnagar, Basti and Gonda districts.
The Moradabad region was flooded after 1.70 lakh cusecs of water was
released from Kalagarh dam into Ram Ganga and 1.80 lakh cusecs from Ram
Nagar dam into Kosi.
The region was the worst affected with more than 100 villages submerged
at least 100,000 people stranded. Nine people died on Tuesday in
rain-related incidents.
In Uttarakhand, incessant rains have left 67 people dead in three days.
So far, 167 people have been killed due to rains in this monsoon season.
Many villages in Tehri, Uttarkashi and Haridwar districts are inundated
and more than 1,500 roads damaged. Several bridges have also been
flushed away in the state.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday made an aerial survey of the
worst affected areas of Uttarakhand and UP after which she spoke to
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and sought a liberal package for them to
tackle the situation.