Bihar floods leave 49.36 lakh people wet in a drought-monsoon year

Bihar's Disaster Management Department counted 49.36 lakh people affected by floods on Monday across 15 districts. Sunday's figure had been 48.70 lakh in 575 gram panchayats and 88 blocks. The districts on the list are Patna, Bhojpur, Saran, Vaishali, Bhagalpur, Begusarai, Buxar, Samastipur, Munger, Katihar, Lakhisarai, Khagaria, Purnea, Madhepura and Araria. The worst-hit names repeat: Patna, Bhojpur, Saran, Vaishali, Bhagalpur, Begusarai and Araria.

At 6 a.m. on Monday the Ganga at Sultanganj in Bhagalpur ran at 36.21 metres, 1.71 metres above the danger mark. Later local reports put the same gauge at 36.19 metres, 1.69 metres above. The river was also above danger at Digha, Gandhi Ghat, Hathidah, Kahalgaon and Munger. The Kosi was high at Baltara and Kursela. The Burhi Gandak was high at Khagaria. The Punpun was high at Sripalpur, the Bagmati at Benibad, the Ghaghara at Darauli. Officials blamed rain in Nepal's catchments as much as rain inside Bihar.

September rainfall in the state sat between 111.7 millimetres (13 per cent above normal) and 112.7 millimetres in different departmental notes. The monsoon year as a whole is not wet. One account put Bihar's seasonal deficit at 31 per cent. The IMD had forecast a below-normal monsoon in April. On 5 September the Ganga at Patna still reached 50.53 metres, a local record in that telling. A dry state with a high river is the contradiction that flood engineers in Bihar have described for years: embankments narrow the bed, silt raises the floor, and a short burst from the Himalaya is enough.

At least ten people have drowned, five in Danapur and Maner in Patna district and five at Koili Khutaha in Bhagalpur, four of them from one family. The department said it was running 1,251 community kitchens and 13 relief camps for about 12,260 people, with 1,790 boats in use. Ten NDRF teams and 27 SDRF teams are deployed. The household grant, grihati anudan, is Rs 7,000 per affected family, paid into bank accounts. Forty-nine lakh people and thirteen camps is the ratio that will follow the government after the water drops.

By Monday some gauges had begun to fall while others stayed above the red line. That is normal late-flood weather. What is not normal is the pairing of a rainfall deficit with a record crest. If the monsoon stays short and the Ganga still climbs, the next budget argument in Patna will be about dredging and embankment height, not about how many kitchens opened in September. The 49 lakh figure is a headcount of people whose fields and floors went under. It is not yet a reconstruction bill.