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\u201cSlowly but steadily, the Gandak is coming closer to our village. We fear that in maximum next ten years, it will erode our village and once again turn us homeless,\u201d said Ram.<\/p>\n
Villagers say they can\u2019t find a safe haven. They live inside the embankment by the river, but the price of land outside the embankment has sky rocketed. \u201cLooks like this time the Ganga ji<\/em> [as local people call the Gandak] will wash us away along with our houses. The future of our children is dark,\u201d said Lal Singh Yadav, another Naika resident.<\/p>\n Bihar is India\u2019s most flood-prone states; 28 out of its 38 districts are flood-prone, according to the Water Resource Department (WRD) of the state government<\/a>.<\/p>\n The plains of Bihar, adjoining Nepal, are drained by a number of rivers that have their catchments in the Himalayas of Nepal \u2013 including the Koshi, Gandak, Burhi Gandak, Bagmati, Kamla Balan, Mahananda and the Adhwara group of rivers. They carry high levels of discharge and sediment load, which are deposited on the plains of Bihar.<\/p>\n The Gandak river originates at the Nhubine Himal Glacier in Nepal and enters India near the Valmiki Tiger Reserve in Pashchim Champaran, Bihar. It further flows down and meets the Ganga near Patna. The Gandak flows 260 kilometres across Bihar \u2013 where an estimated 80%<\/a> of its catchment area is flood-prone.<\/p>\n Map 1: River basin map of North Bihar<\/strong><\/p>\n Floods in Bihar are not new. In 1954 a massive flood affected an area of 2.46 million hectares (mha) and 7.61 million people in north Bihar. This was the year that the first flood policy of India came into being. The government dropped the proposal to dam the Koshi river<\/a> at Barahkshetra in Nepal, in favour of building embankments along the river. Since then, embankments have been built along all the major rivers of Bihar, including over 510 kilometres along the Gandak .<\/p>\n An embankment is an earthen wall built with mud and stones usually 10-12 metres wide at the base and 5 metres wide at the top. Embankments are constructed to save people and their property from floods, but As the length of embankments has increased in Bihar, the state\u2019s flood-prone area has grown – not shrunk.<\/p>\n Dinesh Kumar Mishra<\/a>, a civil engineer and convener of the grassroots NGO Barh Mukti Abhiyan (Flood Free Effort), argues that embankments have increased the intensity of floods in Bihar. He has been fighting India\u2019s top-down flood policies for decades and has documented the impact of embankment construction in Bihar.<\/p>\n Map 2: River embankment map of Bihar<\/strong><\/p>\n The embankments often breach, causing widespread damage. In 2011, the WRD released data showing embankments have breached more than 371 times in the past 24 years, though activists say the real number is far higher<\/a>.<\/p>\n Apart from exacerbating floods, embankments have also created social problems in the surrounding areas. These engineering solutions artificially divide the villages into \u2018haves\u2019 and \u2018have-nots\u2019. Villages that are outside of the embankment feel protected from floods. However, those who live inside the embankments, next to the river, such as Naika tola<\/em>, face terrible floods.<\/p>\n This situation is only getting worse. The huge amount of sediment carried and deposited by rivers (a process known as aggradation) has resulted in the rise of the riverbeds over time, thereby reducing the carrying capacity of the rivers, whose flow is already restricted by the embankments.<\/p>\n According to a 2008 article<\/a> by C P Sinha, who headed the second Bihar State Irrigation Commission, \u201cDuring the past three decades, the rise of the bed level [of the Gandak] had been of the order of 1.8 metres. This type of aggradation necessitates perpetual raising and strengthening of the embankments.\u201d<\/p>\n The state government hasn\u2019t been able to relocate the millions of people in north Bihar living in unsafe areas inside the embankments. For instance, over 380 villages are located within the Koshi embankments with a population of 988,000 (2001 census). The situation is the same in the Gandak river basin.<\/p>\n Naika tola<\/em>: then and now <\/strong><\/p>\n Naika tola<\/em> is a hamlet of over 108 families. It is located on an old, broken and abandoned embankment on the east bank of the Gandak, which was abandoned when a new embankment was constructed on the eastern side of the Gandak in the 1960s.<\/p>\n At that time, the present residents of Naika tola<\/em> lived in another village called Bhaghan on the west bank of the Gandak.<\/p>\n \u201cLife wasn\u2019t easy in Bhaghan, as the village was close to the forest and there were regular attacks on the crops by wild pigs and nilgai<\/em> (Asia\u2019s largest antelope),\u201d said resident Sunaina Devi.<\/p>\n See: One man against the Bagmati<\/a><\/p>\n The villagers had to live with recurring floods. \u201cEvery time the Gandak eroded our land, we used to move within a radius of a kilometre depending on where the land appeared after the floods,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Relocation, adaptation<\/strong><\/p>\n People living inside the river embankments are no stranger to floods. The villagers of Naika tola<\/em>, erstwhile Baghan, have their own standard operating procedures, based on their past experiences and their undying spirit.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are born next to the river, we live next to the river and we die next to the river. We can read the river like nobody else,\u201d said Surendra Yadav, a resident of Naika tola<\/em>. According to him, every year the villagers can judge how much the Gandak\u2019s waters will rise and if the river will erode their land.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce we know the river has come too close to our, we start looking for \u2018safe\u2019 land around the village. Other villages settled inside the embankment understand our plight as they suffer the same problems. Someone or the other comes to our rescue and suggests some temporary vacant land to resettle,\u201d narrated Surendra Yadav.<\/p>\n Before relocating, some village elders visit the new place. \u201cCaste is an important factor in Bihar. So a plan is made as to how the new village will settle – which caste will stay where in the new area,\u201d said Ram.<\/p>\n The majority of the families belong to the Mallah community<\/a> (a schedule tribe in Bihar) and Musahar (Mahadalit) castes. About 20 households belong to Yadavs, 10 to Bind (Other Backward Class) and seven to Chamars (a schedule caste community). Hajjam, Dhobi, Rajput, Chaurasia castes have a family each in Naika tola<\/em>.<\/p>\n In the caste system of Bihar, Musahar is considered the most marginalised, followed by the Chamar. People of both the castes live in Naika tola<\/em>.<\/p>\n Once the blueprint is ready, the village relocates to the new area where there are no basic facilities. Houses need to be reconstructed, at huge cost.<\/p>\n Villagers alleged they cannot use the Indira Awas Yojana (IAY), the government social welfare scheme which provides support of INR 75,000 [USD 1,090] to build a house, because they do not own the minimum requirement of 10 dhur<\/em> of land [one dhur<\/em> is equal to 17 square metres].<\/p>\n Surviving without basic amenities<\/strong><\/p>\n When Chandmata Devi and other villagers relocated from Baghan to Naika tola thirty years ago<\/em>, spending money to construct a new house was a small part of a much larger battle. \u201cThere was no drinking water. We women used to walk a few kilometres every day to Mangalpur to fetch water in earthen pots on our heads,\u201d said Chandmata Devi.<\/p>\n A year later, a well was built and women of Naika tola<\/em> didn\u2019t have to walk kilometres to bring water any more. A decade or so ago, the local vidhayak<\/em> [members of the legislative assembly] got a handpump installed at the village. Local NGOs have tested the water using guava leaves and they claim the water has high iron content. No water testing has been done for the presence of arsenic.<\/p>\n Until recently, there were no toilets and the entire village practiced open defecation. Though in the past year or so, four ecosan (ecological sanitation) toilets<\/a> have been built in the hamlet and another three are underway.<\/p>\n See: Eco-san toilets provide hope in flooded Bihar<\/a><\/p>\n Because of the regular relocation, the education of the village children has suffered. The children of Naika tola<\/em> did not go to any school till about 15 years ago when the local anganwadi<\/em> was turned into a primary school.<\/p>\n The challenge of livelihood<\/strong><\/p>\n At first the villagers of Naika tola<\/em> had no source of income. \u201cWe are all landless and daily wagers. For one year, we kept running around looking for work. There were times we had no food to feed our children,\u201d narrated Ram. Slowly they started getting farm work, though most of the younger generation migrated to Delhi, Punjab and other states in search of livelihood, he added. Ram\u2019s two sons work in Kathmandu.<\/p>\n Except a few Mallah families no one owns any land. The Mallah also barely own one to two katha<\/em> land each [13 katha<\/em> make one acre]. Other families rent land and grow crops such as wheat, paddy and sugar cane. They pay the landlords in money [known as a hunda system] or by sharing 50% of crops produced [batai system]. Both systems are exploitative \u2013 with the farmers providing all the inputs and shouldering all the risks in an event of a flood. As a result the landless families can barely feed their families.<\/p>\n The changing course of the Gandak<\/strong><\/p>\n As the Gandak comes closer every year, the residents of Naika tola are worried their \u201chappy\u201d days are over. \u201cThirty years ago when we moved here, the river was very far away. But now, the river is barely a kilometre away. As per our observations, the Gandak is changing its course and moving eastwards,\u201d said Ram.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery year the water levels are rising in the village. As soon as it crosses waist level, we grab our children and run to higher ground,\u201d said Sunaina Devi. According to her, every year several people die of snake bites as the flood waters bring poisonous snakes. \u201cThe only way to carry a sick person to the nearest primary health centre is through dengi<\/em> [boat]. The dengi<\/em>, not the government, helps us survive each flood,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Researchers confirm<\/a> their fears. According to them, the Himalayan rivers keep changing their courses every now and then, thereby throwing up new territories and submerging old land.<\/p>\n This causes major problems on the North Bihar plains. In an October 2003 paper<\/a> published in the Current Science<\/em>, K S Valdiya writes: \u201cThe Gandak has shifted eastward by 105 km over its mega fan in the period 1935\u20131975; and the Koshi moved 112 km in the span of 228 years (1736 to 1964)\u201d.<\/p>\n In 2012, a shift in the Gandak\u2019s course had shocked the visitors of the famous Sonepur Mela<\/a>, a famous cattle fair, as the centuries-old tradition of bathing elephants in the Gandak\u2019s waters could not be performed due to shift in the flow of the river. The Gandak is now changing its course<\/a> and fast-eroding the forests of Valmiki Tiger Reserve on India-Nepal border.<\/p>\n Nowhere to turn<\/strong><\/p>\n Clearly, the Gandak is moving eastward and may soon engulf Naika tola<\/em>. Some eight years ago, the state government had allocated 10 dhur<\/em> land to each of the 30 Musahar families of Naika tola<\/em>. But the land was under water so no one could move there.<\/p>\n Villagers are angry with the government for not doing anything. \u201cThe government keeps telling us that living inside the embankments is not safe and that we should move out. But, it doesn\u2019t tell us where we should go,\u201d said Sunaina Devi. According to her, if the embankment was not there, the flood waters would have spread far and wide and not threatened the their survival.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are daily wagers. For eight hours labour a day, men earn INR 200 (USD 2.92) and women earn INR 100 (USD 1.46) only. Land prices outside of the embankment are in lakhs (hundreds of thousands). How can we ever buy land?\u201d questioned Chandmata Devi.<\/p>\n The recently constructed Gopalganj-Bettiah road bridge has added to the woes of Naika tola<\/em>. Villagers alleged that the elevated road blocked the flow of the Gandak and led to even worse floods<\/a>. \u201cThis year [2016], during the floods, we had to squat on the new elevated road,\u201d said Lal Singh Yadav. The following year the villagers had to flee to the elevated road again when the area was submerged in waist-deep water for 10 days. The water then receded but the hamlet was surrounded by water for almost two months.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government must come to our rescue and rehabilitate us otherwise the only option left for us is to build our houses on the elevated road\u201d, warned Ram. \u201cWe are ready to eat less, but we want our children to be safe. Is that too much to ask for?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n Nidhi Jamwal is an independent environment and development journalist based in Mumbai, India. Her Twitter handle is @JamwalNidhi and email is nidhijamwal@gmail.com<\/em><\/p>\n ~~<\/p>\n This is the first in a special series of reports by women journalists, done in partnership with ICIMOD, showing how vulnerable communities innovate and adapt in the face of climate change.<\/em><\/p>\n The Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region is one of the world\u2019s youngest, highest and most fragile mountain systems. It is one of the areas most vulnerable to climate change, where temperatures are rising much faster than the global average. It is also an area of huge cultural diversity \u2013 where some of the poorest communities face huge challenges.<\/em><\/p>\n The Himalayan Adaptation, Water and Resilience Research<\/a> (HI-AWARE) is a research consortium that has carried out scientific and participatory research to better understand the impacts of a changing climate in the region. As part of this project, HI-AWARE reached out to women journalists across the region to capture local experiences \u2013 from high in the icy mountains to the sandy plains. The stories that emerged are now being published on thethirdpole.net<\/a> as part of a special series to be published over the next few months.<\/em><\/p>\n From farming silt on the banks of the Gandaki, to harvesting water through artificial glaciers in the mountains, these stories capture the innovative adaptation strategies people are using and that can serve as lessons for communities elsewhere.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Villagers in Bihar have been forced to relocate ten times as the Gandak shifts its course, and are now left with no safe place left to go<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2194,"featured_media":20025172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[761,50039903],"tags":[519,20000005,587,50040707],"hashtags":[],"country":[20000111],"class_list":["post-20025168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate","category-water","tag-climate-impacts","tag-ganga","tag-rivers","tag-the-third-pole","country-india"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/IMG_3604.jpg\")
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