Sand & Summer at Kosi

The people in Kosi region had witnessed and endured the flood, its aftermath, chilling & damp winter & now scorching sun.


Till about a month back, many families still had hope that things would be normal soon, and courageously hung on with hope & desperation.

Hope has evaporated into the scorching heat & now they are desperate to get away from this Kosi region, their home-their hope.

There was a long queue at Saharsa railway station. It was more than half a kilometer long when we were there last week.

Hundreds & hundreds of people, mostly young or fit enough to travel, mainly men, were waiting for their turn to buy the ticket that is their only hope of surviving or helping their family survive.

They are waiting to buy ticket for travelling to Punjab on Jan shakti Express. This train runs up to Jalandher. Almost everyone is going there.

We had not seen anything like this, except during the initial phase of flood in August- sep 2008 when a lot of people had migrated out in search of livelihood.

Why now? Especially, after they endured harsh conditions in hellish conditions through these last 7 months.

The answer can be seen at the places where the Kosi flowed during the flood last year.

At places where there were lush green fields last year, now there is only sand. Only Sand.

For miles around, there is nothing but sand, loads of it.. dancing in the hot, dry summer winds.

Right from Birpur Basantpur region, east of Birpur court colony, the landscape changes drastically. Here, near Birpur one can see a thin river flowing down south..it’s the Kosi river flowing on its old route..

Travelling to Parmanandpur, Mohanpur, Balbhadrapur, Bisanpur..etc, you cannot ignore the over whelming presence of sand on fringes of horizon.

As you cross the embankment and get in the old (flood ) area, all you see is an ocean of sand, and as we found out later, it is very important to follow some path or have a knowledgeable local person with you, it is easy to get lost..there was no landmark to orient ourselves about one Km downstream.

There is no mode of transport, you have to drag a cycle, mo bikes can’t go in the sand fields; only way of carrying supplies is to physically carry them.

Most of the farmlands down from Birpur towards south & east are in the same condition. This trend decreases as you move further down towards Kumarkhund.

One very obvious problem is identifying the farm borders as there is nothing left to relate its position. In many places, landlords cannot say where their farm starts or ends.

These fields are rendered useless for a minimum of 5-6 years; some farmers say that even if they stay back, what they will do here...There is absolutely nothing that can get them restarted.

The bridge on Bhavanipur - Balua route had collapsed during the flood, and a “Pipa pul” had been constructed there…this saved a lot of trouble getting to Birpur.

Unfortunately, even the Pipa Pul collapsed last week. We were stranded for a long time..& after

We came to know about the cause, we came to Saharsa & took the train t0 Patna. It was here that we witnessed so many people going to Punjab.

We were able to deliver books, clothes & medicines to volunteers, but could not deliver all the materials after our vehicle got stranded near Bishnupur due to collapsed bridge.

It evoked mixed feelings while crossing places where we had been during the flood, amidst a sea of water; now, the same places reveal the scars & sand kosi left behind. It’s difficult to compare which condition was worse, flooded by water or flooded by sand.

Then...

..and now-


Having written all these not so positive observations, some slightly better informations;

there are always people who give you hope & encouragement by their selfless & sustained work.

One of them is Ms Shyamala Rao, from Maanav Utkarsh Samiti, Maharastra. She has been working here all through these seven months. Earlier placed at Bhagalpur, they are now working from Forbasegunj.

They are running Adultl iteracy classes, and are about to finish training 60 women for agarbatti manufacturing.This is the first batch.

They need help in form of medicines, clothes, books & other such material needed for community developement, livelyhood training, child & women health and adult literacy.

The contact details are:

1st floor,
Opp.Kosi gramin bank,
Manikchand road,
Forbaegunj,
Araria.


The ph no is; +919471676979

Email :maanavutkarsh@yahoo.co.in
Shyamala Rao,
Maanav Utkarsh Samiti

Another group who have been working here all through till now is AMURT.

Acharya Kisan Sood is working in Bihar flood relief, & amongst the various works undertaken by them was the cremation of dead bodies & animal carcases.

They are presently running schools & child health centers at;

Bali Village of Shrinagar Panchayat in Gerada Block of Madhepura dist

Phulkaha village in Madhepura dist. This is a old primary school with 70 children. Its hostel has 11 children.

Primary school has been started with 79 children since 26th Jan. '09 in Sakrecha Panchayat of Punpun block



School is being planned in Madhepura town. & Supaul's Pratapganj block from July'09



Children home for girls is running here in Patna in Mainpura & home for boys at Patna is planned to be started by July '09 .

Email; acaryasood@yahoo.com (Ac. Kishan Sood)

A lot of people wanted to sponser child education, they can contact Acharya Ji or contact me for any details regarding these two agencies.


Thanks & regards,

~chandan
+919931763070

Infrastructure after the flood

Damage to infrastructure is telling & widespread. These pictures are from our
February trip to Chatapur,Maheshkut,Baluaghat & beyond.

This is what a wayward body of water can do to masonry & RCC structures,what chances
of survival would a simple village dwelling have against this onslaught.

People related the thundering sounds they heard, and how everything shook violently
all evening and then the water came, it looked like simmering silvery sea of water,
and when it hit the villages, people dint know what to do.  It was terrifying and
disorienting..they dint know which direction to go. Everything was going wrong..
most of the villagers found safety atop few brick mortar houses with rcc roof.

In fact those few cement houses that almost all villages have was the Noah's Arc
that saved a lot of people, specially women and children.

They hung in there till relief boats came; SSB, ITBP,Navy...they braved immense
danger and rescued those who were stranded.

They are all brave hearts.. those who rescued them & those who were rescued.

© chandan  Koshi-4

© chandan  Koshi-4

© chandan  Koshi-4

© chandan  Koshi-4

© chandan  Koshi-4

© chandan  Koshi-4

The base of this hand pump or "chapa-kal" is above 8 feet over the existing water

body. Before the floods ripped through this village, it would have been barely a
feet above the ground, and this was a field. Now, its a stagnant body of water.

Six months after the flood, Kosi is still haunting these areas. These people need
lot of help...and although the Bihar Government/NGO's are working hard to help &
restore normality out in this region, the spread and the intensity of destruction
is just overwhelming.

We are still hanging around, doing what we can,with what we have. We are also trying to work out how best we can help some children get sustained quality primary education.

~chandan

+919204757999

Relief distribution at Rani patti

We were able to distribute around 210 woolen blankets at Ranipatti, Raghunathpur panchayat ( Murligunj) on 12-15 Feb 2008. Earlier last week we (Feb-2-4) we had distributed some blankets here along with areas near Bhawartola. We also distributed clothes, new & old to people in these areas.

Many of these places in Singhwara, Bhawner tola or Ranipatti cant still be reached by boat or vehicle; we used to go there & distribute coupons for blankets & clothes depending on how much stock we had.

It was difficult not to be able to distribute materials to all people in the village, so we try to find the weakest & most deprived people and gave them coupons. It feels horrible doing so.. all the people are more or less in the same boat & need the relief blankets & clothes.

After so much time out here, you can almost make out the condition of the village before you enter it...you can sense the gloom before you enter a badly suffered village.

Inside, everyone wants some relief. There is no pandemonium, though; they understand that all of them will not get relief material this time and line up accordingly.

Its remarkable.

These people have lived together amidst sorrow & pain for so long, cut away from the world, its almost like they all think the same way..like communal thinking .There is also lot unstated mutual understanding and admiration for one another for having made it through.

A day after coupon distribution, the come to the nearest point where we can bring our vehicle ; and the relief is distributed to the coupon holders. At places where its very difficult for people to come out of the villages, we try & distribute relief materials in the villages.

At places, to reach a badly hit village, we have to go through other villages which were not so badly damaged, or have had already received relief from other agencies. It is difficult not to give any relief material to them & go to villages ahead to distribute the same, in such cases, we generally use the coupon for distribution.

Village Ratanpatti,Raghunathpur Panchayat, Murligunj, Feb 14- 15 2009.

Flood relief.. last few destinations

The last of blankets were distributed in Supaul & Madhepura ditricts of flood ravaged Kosi region. We always wanted to camp at Chatapur and do relief work around the area..twice already we had been there but couldn't go beyond 10 km of Chatapur.

This time Kosi had been moved back to its original path and many villages were now accessible by two wheelers. We took the vehicle as far as we could, borrowed motorbikes and bicycles & went in to villages which were cut off for the longest & were the farthest that we had been.

The pictures are from our last 3 relief distributions, all undertaken in last three weeks. The damage to the infrastructure is telling, & it looks more like a war zone at places. At other places, everything is so quiet that you can hear your heartbeat.

Update: 6 Feb 2009

Dear friends,

We have distributed blankets & clothes at Birpur (4 km from Kosi barrage) today and are returning to Ghospur where we will spend the night. Tomorrow, we will do distributions at Lakshmania & Balua villages where coupon for the same has already been distributed today by Ashok Ji, who is from Dr.Mishra's family.

We will move in to Chatapur day after tomorrow. There is still problems taking a four wheeler there but most of the interior places can be reached by two wheeler.

We didnt have much relief material with us, but we distributed around 200 blankets and 250 dress sets for children which we had in our vehicle, equally at these three places. Ashok Mishra Ji, from Balua has been helping us in local distribution of coupons and subsequent delivery of relief materials.

Anubha Ji, these 250 dresses were the last of 800 dresses send in two consignments from Jalandhar. Thanks a lot.

The cold weather in these areas is slowly wearing off, and more people can be seen in the open..and with Kosi flowing back in its course, things look brighter.

Thanks to all of you who have worked for the Kosi flood relief.

Thanks & regards,
chandan
+91 993 1763 070