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{{Short description|Flooding in the Indian state of Bihar}}
{{use Indian English|date=May 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2022}}
[[Image:Flooded Bihar.JPG|thumb|right|A view of [[2008 Bihar flood]]]]

[[Bihar]] is recognized as India's most flood-prone state, with approximately 76% of the population in North Bihar living under the persistent threat of severe [[flood|flooding]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/district-level-flood-maps-for-bihar-ready-116091700438_1.html|title=District-level flood maps for Bihar ready}}</ref><ref name="fmis">{{cite web|url=http://fmis.bih.nic.in/history.html|title=FMIS|website=fmis.bih.nic.in}}</ref> Bihar makes up 16.5% of India's flood-affected area and contains 22.1% of India's flood-affected population.<ref>[http://www.indiawaterportal.org/bihar/?cat=5 India Water Portal - Bihar Floods 2008] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090201071221/http://www.indiawaterportal.org/bihar/?cat=5 |date=1 February 2009 }}</ref> About 73.06% of Bihar's geographical area, {{convert|68800|km2|sqmi}} out of {{convert|94160|km2|sqmi}}, is affected. Each year, floods kill many and damage livestock and other assets worth millions.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/states/bihar/flood-threat-grows-to-37-districts-234511|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612141218/https://www.telegraphindia.com/states/bihar/flood-threat-grows-to-37-districts-234511|url-status=dead|archive-date=12 June 2018|title=Flood threat grows to 37 districts}}</ref><ref name="fmis"/> In total, floods have claimed 9,500 lives since the government started publishing figures in 1979.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/interactives/bihar-floods-2017/|title=Bihar's scary new flood}}</ref> [[North Bihar]] districts are vulnerable to at least five major flood-causing rivers during [[monsoon]] – the [[Mahananda River|Mahananda]], [[Koshi River|Koshi]], [[Bagmati River|Bagmati]], [[Burhi Gandak River|Burhi Gandak]], and [[Gandaki River|Gandak]] rivers – which originate in Nepal. Some South Bihar districts have also become vulnerable to floods, from the [[Son River|Son]], [[Punpun River|Punpun]], and [[Phalgu]] rivers.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/bihar-gears-up-to-fight-annual-floods/articleshow/76268881.cms#:~:text=The%20area%20is%20vulnerable%20to,Sone%2C%20Punpun%20and%20Falgu%20rivers.|title=Bihar gears up to fight annual floods|website=[[The Times of India]] }}</ref> The [[2013 Bihar flood|2013 flood]] affected over 5.9 million people in 3,768 villages in 20 districts in the state.<ref>{{cite web|title=Bihar speeds up Flood Relief and Rescue Operations|url=http://news.biharprabha.com/2013/09/bihar-speeds-up-flood-relief-and-rescue-operations/|access-date=5 September 2013}}</ref> The [[2017 Bihar Flood|2017 flood]] affected 19 districts in [[North Bihar]], killing 514 people<ref>{{cite web|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/floods-in-state-not-man-made-says-minister/articleshow/60265509.cms|title=Floods in state not man-made, says minister|website=[[The Times of India]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/flood-situation-improves-in-bihar-number-of-dead-at-514-1743155|title=Flood Situation Improves In Bihar, Number Of Dead At 514}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/bihar-floods-number-of-deaths-rises-to-341-1740717|title=Bihar Floods: Number Of Deaths Rises To 341}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/bihar-floods-death-toll-mounts-to-304/articleshow/60163110.cms|title=Death toll in Bihar floods mounts to 304; situation grim in UP|website=[[The Times of India]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/flood-situation-worsens-in-bihar-death-toll-rises-to-253/articleshow/60147634.cms|title=Flood situation worsens in Bihar, death toll rises to 253|website=[[The Times of India]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/bihar-floods-119-dead-rains-likely-to-continue-for-a-week/articleshow/60113191.cms|title=Bihar floods: 119 dead; bridge collapse caught on camera|website=[[The Times of India]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.firstpost.com/india/bihar-floods-death-toll-rises-to-202-in-18-districts-thundershowers-likely-to-continue-today-3951357.html|title=Bihar floods: Death toll rises to 202 in 18 districts; thundershowers likely to continue today}}</ref> and affecting over 17 million.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/bihar-flood-deaths-rise-to-440-prime-minister-announces-rs-500-crore-relief-1742458|title=Bihar Flood Deaths Rise To 440; Prime Minister Announces Rs. 500 Crore Relief}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.livemint.com/Politics/Q0VX3xLI4jLwhnX5hfQWpI/Bihar-floods-death-toll-touches-440-171-crore-people-stil.html|title=Bihar floods' death toll touches 440, 1.71 crore people still affected}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/national/bihar-floods-cost-39-more-lives-up-staggers/article9831334.ece|title=Bihar floods cost 39 more lives, UP staggers}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.firstpost.com/india/bihar-floods-death-toll-rises-to-304-1-38-crore-people-still-battling-deluge-in-18-districts-3958457.html|title=Bihar floods: Death toll rises to 304, 1.38 crore people still battling deluge in 18 districts}}</ref>

==Causes of flooding==
{{see also|Kosi embankment|Breaches in Kosi embankment}}
[[File:Manmohan Singh carried out an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas of Bihar. The Chairperson, UPA, Smt. Sonia Gandhi, the Union Home Minister, Shri Shivraj V. Patil, the Union Minister for Railways, Shri Lalu Prasad.jpg|thumb|Manmohan Singh carried out an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas of Bihar with Chairperson, UPA, Smt. Sonia Gandhi, the Union Home Minister, Shri Shivraj V. Patil, the Union Minister for Railways, Shri Lalu Prasad.]]

[[Geography of Nepal|Geographically, Nepal]] is a mountainous region. When heavy rains occur in the mountains of central and eastern Nepal the water flows into the major drainages of the [[Gandaki River|Narayani]], [[Bagmati]], and [[Koshi river|Koshi]] rivers. As these rivers cross into India they break their banks and flood the plains and lowlands of Bihar. To protect the Koshi River's embankments as well as the [[Koshi Barrage]], or sluice gates, Indian engineers who are in charge of the dam in Nepal, open the sluice gates, which can cause flooding downriver in Bihar. In 2008, during a high-flow episode, a breach in the East Koshi afflux embankment, above the barrage, occurred and the Koshi river, known as the Sorrow of Bihar, found an old channel, near the border with Nepal and India, it had abandoned over 100 years previously. Approximately 15 million people were affected as the river broke its embankment at Kusaha in Nepal, submerging several districts of Nepal and India. 95% of the Koshi's total flowed through the new course.

===Embankments===
A recent fact-finding report on the [[Koshi river|Kosi]] floods of 2008 – prepared by a civilian organization, the Fact Finding Mission on the Kosi, composed of various experts such as Sudhirendar Sharma, [[Dinesh Kumar Mishra]], and Gopal Krishna – highlighted the fact that although India has built over 3000 km of [[Levee|embankments]] in [[Bihar]] over the last few decades, the propensity for flooding has increased by 2.5 times during the same time period, not to mention that embankments failed during each major flooding event.<ref name="Sharma–Krishna 2008">{{cite book |last1=Sharma |first1=Sudhirendar |last2=Krishna |first2=Gopal |title=Kosi Deluge – the Worst is Still to Come: the Report of the Fact Finding Mission on the Kosi |date=2008 |location=New Delhi |publisher=Ashoka Fellowship Initiative |oclc=649085026}}</ref>

The report, titled ''Kosi Deluge: The Worst is Still to Come'', stressed that embankments straitjacket the river. In the case of the Kosi, it found that because of [[siltation]] the river bed had risen several feet in relation to the adjoining land. The high and low lands separated by embankments have created a situation where the lowlands have become permanently waterlogged. Sixteen per cent of the land mass of north Bihar is permanently waterlogged.<ref name="Sharma–Krishna 2008" />

In 1954, when Bihar's flood policy was introduced, Bihar had approximately 160 km of embankments. At that time, the flood-prone area in the state was estimated to be 2.5 million hectares. Upon completion of the system of embankments, 3,465 km had been constructed and were administered by the Water Resources Department (WRD). However, the amount of flood-prone land had increased to 6.89 million hectares by 2004.

===Farakka Barrage===
The recent period has seen serious interruption in the dynamic equilibrium of the river, hindering the natural oscillation of the river within its meandering belt. The meandering belt of the Ganges in [[Malda district|Malda]] and [[Murshidabad district|Murshidabad]] districts is 10 km wide. Upstream of the [[Farakka Barrage]], the water level of the Ganges has risen about 8 meters. The river, which flowed in a South Easterly course between Rajmahal and Farakka during early decades of this century, has now formed a concentration of meander loops to accommodate the additional discharge due to the barrage. Due to the obstruction caused by the Barrage, each year nearly 640 million tonnes of silt are accumulated in the riverbed.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://scroll.in/article/815066/over-50-years-ago-bengals-chief-engineer-predicted-that-the-farakka-dam-would-flood-bihar|title=Over 50 years ago, Bengal's chief engineer predicted that the Farakka dam would flood Bihar}}</ref> In the last three decades this has resulted in the accumulation of nearly 18.56 billion tonnes of silt.

Farakka barrage has led to following problems upstream of the barrage:

* Interception of the flow channel being changed from straight to oblique
* Sedimentation (640 x106 metric tonnes per year)
* Reduction of the cross-sectional area
* Declining slope of the long profile
* Widening of the river and increasing length
* Increase in flood frequency and magnitude
* Reduction of flora and fauna in the river, specially the Hilsha fish.

A 2016 Central Water Commission (CWC) report on Bihar floods states that the Farakka Barrage, even under the worst scenario, can impact areas up to 42 km upstream, due to a backwater effect.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/farakka-not-to-blame-for-bihar-floods-cwc/articleshow/57318767.cms|title=Farakka not to blame for Bihar floods: CWC|website=[[The Times of India]] }}</ref> Patna is located about 400 km upstream. The report blamed the number of banana plantations on the river bank between Patna and [[Bhagalpur]] as one of the reasons for the floods, based on the assessment of 100 years of flooding of the Ganga. The CWC report stated that the sedimentation in Ganga, in Bihar, is basically due to huge sediment load contributed from its northern tributaries – the [[Ghaghra]], [[Gandak]] and [[Koshi River|Kosi]] rivers. The flood-affected area in Bihar was 2.5 million hectares in 1954 when the length of all embankments in Bihar was 160 km, but the flood-affected area increased to 7.295 million hectares in 2016, after the construction of 3731 km of embankments.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/patna/bjp-leader-sushil-modi-questions-nitish-demand-for-decommissioning-farakka-barrage-4536765/|title=BJP leader Sushil Modi questions Nitish demand for decommissioning Farakka barrage}}</ref>

===Contributing water sources===
[[Bihar|North Bihar]] is within the [[Floodplain|flood plains]] of eight major rivers, all of which are tributaries of the [[Ganges]].
* [[Ghaghra]]
* [[Gandak]]
* [[Budhi Gandak]]
* [[Bagmati]]
* [[Kamala River|Kamala]]
* [[Bhutahi Balan]]
* [[Koshi river|Kosi]]
* [[Mahananda River|Mahananda]]

==Statistics==
{| class="wikitable sortable" align="center" style="margin-left:.6em"
|+ Damages in Bihar Due to Flood, 1979–2006<ref name="Disaster Management in Bihar">{{cite web|url=http://disastermgmt.bih.nic.in/|title=Disaster Management|website=disastermgmt.bih.nic.in|access-date=26 November 2008|archive-date=23 October 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081023031614/http://disastermgmt.bih.nic.in/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="disastermgmt.bih.nic.in">{{cite web|url=http://disastermgmt.bih.nic.in/Statitics/Statistics.htm|title=Loss of Public Property|website=disastermgmt.bih.nic.in|access-date=26 November 2008|archive-date=19 October 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081019015932/http://disastermgmt.bih.nic.in/Statitics/Statistics.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|-
!Year!!Districts!!Blocks!!Panchayats!!Villages!!Humans (100,000)!!Animals (100,000)!!Total Area (100,000 [[Hectare|ha]])!!Farmed Areas (100,000 [[Hectare|ha]])!!Crop Damage (100,000 [[Indian rupee|INR]])!!Houses Damaged!!Public Property Damaged (100,000 [[Indian rupee|INR]])
|-
||2006||14||63||375||959||10.89||0.1||1.81||0.87||706.63||18,637||8,456.17
|-
||2005||12||81||562||1,464||21.04||5.35||4.6||1.35||1,164.50||5,538||305
|-
||2004||20||211||2,788||9,346||212.99||86.86||27||13.99||52,205.64||929,773||{{formatnum:103049}}.60
|-
||2003||24||172||1,496||5,077||76.02||11.96||15.08||6.1||6,266.13||45,262||1,035.16
|-
||2002||25||6||2,504||8,318||160.18||52.51||19.69||9.4||51,149.61||419,014||40,892.19
|-
||2001||22||194||1,992||6,405||90.91||11.7||11.95||6.5||26,721.79||222,074||18,353.78
|-
||2000||33||213||2,327||12,351||90.18||8.09||8.05||4.43||8,303.70||343,091||3,780.66
|-
||1999||24||150||1,604||5,057||65.66||13.58||8.45||3.04||24,203.88||91,813||5,409.99
|-
||1998||28||260||2,739||8,347||134.7||30.93||25.12||12.84||36,696.68||199,611||9,284.04
|-
||1997||26||169||1,902||7,043||69.65||10.11||14.71||6.55||5,737.66||174,379||2,038.09
|-
||1996||29||195||2,049||6,417||67.33||6.6||11.89||7.34||7,169.29||116,194||1,035.70
|-
||1995||26||177||1,901||8,233||66.29||8.15||9.26||4.24||19,514.32||297,765||2,183.57
|-
||1994||21||112||1,045||2,755||40.12||15.03||6.32||3.5||5,616.33||33,876||151.66
|-
||1993||18||124||1,263||3,422||53.52||6.68||15.64||11.35||13,950.17||219,826||3,040.86
|-
||1992||8||19||170||414||5.56||0.75||0.76||0.25||58.09||1,281||0.75
|-
||1991||24||137||1,336||4,096||48.23||5.13||9.8||4.05||2,361.03||27,324||139.93
|-
||1990||24||162||1,259||4,178||39.57||2.7||8.73||3.21||1,818.88||11,009||182.27
|-
||1989||16||74||652||1,821||18.79||0.35||4.71||1.65||704.88||7,746||83.7
|-
||1988||23||181||1,616||5,687||62.34||0.21||10.52||3.95||4,986.32||14,759||150.64
|-
||1987||30||382||6,112||24,518||286.62||33.25||47.5||25.7||67,881.00||1,704,999||680.86
|-
||1986||23||189||1,828||6,509||75.8||-||19.18||7.97||10,513.51||136,774||3,201.99
|-
||1985||20||162||1,245||5,315||53.09||-||7.94||4.38||3,129.52||103,279||204.64
|-
||1984||23||239||3,209||11,154||135||-||30.5||15.87||18,543.85||310,405||2,717.72
|-
||1983||22||138||1,224||4,060||42.41||-||18.13||5.78||2,629.25||38,679||258.14
|-
||1982||15||110||1,112||3,708||46.81||45.14||9.32||3.23||9,700.00||68,242||955.33
|-
||1981||21||201||2,138||7,367||69.47||74.83||12.61||7.71||7,213.19||75,776||-
|-
||1980||21||193||1,869||7,010||74.45||-||17.86||9.43||7,608.43||118,507||-
|-
||1979||13||110||-||-||37.38||-||8.06||2.74||1,901.52||27,816||-
|}

== See also ==
* [[1987 Bihar flood]]
* [[2004 Bihar flood]]
* [[2007 Bihar flood]]
* [[2008 Indian floods]]
* [[2013 North India floods]]
* [[2013 Bihar flood]]
* [[2017 Bihar flood]]
* [[Koshi Flood 2024]]

== Gallery ==

<gallery class="center">
Image:CeresolePierre 1935 Bihar IN 01-a.jpg|An old picture of 1935 [[flood]] in [[flood]]
Image:Flooded Bihar.JPG|A view of [[2008 Bihar flood]]
File:NDRF in Bihar Flood.jpg|NDRF in [[2008 Bihar flood]]
Image:The Kosi, August 8, 2008.jpg|The Kosi before it flooded in August 2008
Image:The Kosi, August 24, 2008.jpg|The Kosi during the August 2008 flood
</gallery>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* CNN-IBN 30 Minutes documenetary on Bihar Floods 2008 by [[Marya Shakil]] - [https://web.archive.org/web/20100829165803/http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/74041/09_2008/30min_2109_1/after-the-floods-kosi-piles-on-more-disasters.html Part 1] [https://web.archive.org/web/20100829165808/http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/74041/09_2008/30min_2109_1a/after-the-floods-kosi-piles-on-more-disasters.html Part 2] [https://web.archive.org/web/20100830222245/http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/74041/%2009_2008/30min_2109_2/after-the-floods-kosi-piles-on-more-disasters.html Part 3] [https://web.archive.org/web/20100830222249/http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/74041/09_2008/30min_2109_3/after-the-floods-kosi-piles-on-more-disasters.html Part 4]
* [http://rapidresponse.org.in Rapid Response] providing relief support to the affected people since 2016.

{{Rivers in Bihar}}
{{Kosi Division topics}}
{{Darbhanga Division topics}}
{{Purnia Division topics}}
{{Kosi basin}}

[[Category:Floods in Bihar| ]]
[[Category:Floods in India]]

Floods in Bihar - Revision history

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