A villager carries his calf near the flooded highway Wednesday. Express photo by Vishal Srivastav
Already fighting disease, villagers of eastern Uttar Pradesh found themselves at the mercy of floods Wednesday as they had to to take shelter on the roadside with their children and cattle.
Flood water started rising suddenly early morning on the outskirts of Gorakhpur and Maharajganj as many embankments developed cracks. By the end of the day, roads as well as villages were submerged.
“We did not get time to take out our belongings. Last night, some people came shouting that the embankment has broken. We ran with whatever we could, some with a charpoy, some with grain. Some tried to save their cattle but most of it wqas washed away in flood,” said Ram Pyare Yadav, 60. “We have to ensure food for ourselves as well as our animals.”
He is from Jungle Dudhi village on Pharendra-Maharajganj Road, which is under water. Villagers have made a temporary shade using plastic bags and bamboo sticks. Over 1,000 families of his village have been affected, he said.
“Everything happened so fast that we did not get time to even go back for more belongings,” said Leelavati, 37, settled on the roadside with her two children. “Water from the river Rapti often enters our houses but this time it has destroyed everything. Even our grain, stored in tanks for the rest of the year, is soaked and we are trying to dry it.”
At Mujahana village, one side of the road with huts and hand-pumps are all under water. On the other side the fields are flooded but the water is yet to reach huts as some of the villagers have blocked the culvert leading there.
“Udhar to sab ghar doob hi gaya hai, agar culvert khol diya to idhar bhi sarae gaon doob jayenge,” Valmiki Kumar argued with district administration officials.
Said sub-district magistrate R B Singh, who reached the spot, “There are 10 villages that have gone under after water was released from Nepal yesterday. Eighty per cent of the water is from Nepal and only 20% is because of the rainfall here. We are undertaking rescue operation with the help of SSB and NDRF.”
Said Rajesh Kumar, SSB inspector, “Some of the people in pucca houses have refused to move out. We are trying to convince them to leave.”
In Gorakhpur, Jafar colony near Tiwaripur was submerged Thursday following a leak in the Domingarh dam.
At least 33 deaths people have died of flood-related causes in Uttar Pradesh so far. The floods have affected 22 districts, 1,623 villages and a population over 12.80 lakh in the eastern Uttar Pradesh. According to government figures, 996 of these villages are cut off.
According to State Disaster Management Department data, 10 of the 33 deaths were reported in the last two days.
