Repeated floods in north Bihar have fuelled migration of men, and displaced their families repeatedly as swelling rivers swallow land
Nidhi Jamwal
Work underway to strengthen a breached embankment of Gandak river on October 2, 2024, in West Champaran district. Nidhi Jamwal/The Migration Story
WEST CHAMPARAN, Bihar: Smoke from a makeshift firewood chulha pervaded the air as a young woman cooked rice for her family. A six-year-old boy stuffed his mouth with chivda (flattened raw rice) mixed with jaggery while an old woman rocked a baby to sleep. The mood at this shelter camp for flood-affected people in northern Bihar in early October was not as much of anxiety as that of indifference to an all-too familiar tragedy that had befallen them. They had just lost their home to a flood, one of many in recent years.
The shelter is located on a brick-laden elevated road at Mangalpur Chowk in Bihar’s West Champaran district, which shares its northern border with Nepal and western border with Uttar Pradesh. The road is officially the left embankment of the Gandak river.
After the floods in late September this year, the shelter became the temporary home of the displaced villagers of Naya Tola Bhishambharpur. This village has lost its land to erosion 10 times in the past several decades, said villagers, who have been displaced almost every year each time the Gandak River’s water rises.
Gandak river is a tributary of Ganga river. It originates in Nepal and often shifts its course and causes land erosion. Nidhi Jamwal/The Migration Story
“During monsoon, we keep our valuables ready in a trunk. Just when the water level starts to rise rapidly, we leave with those essentials to a higher ground, which is either a road or an embankment,” said Manju Devi, a resident of the village.
Just across the Gandak river, on its right bank, in the district’s Bhaesaya Reta Tola village, Brijesh Nishad had returned home in the beginning of monsoon to cultivate kharif crop but the flood deluged his house. Brijesh is from the community of boatmen or ‘Nishads’ as they are known, and is a seasonal migrant. He works for 8-9 months as a daily wage labourer in faraway Gujarat, Maharashtra or Punjab. During the monsoon months, he returns home to grow paddy for his family and migrates again after Diwali and the Chhath festivities.
But migrating for work is not Brijesh’s only problem. His village has been forced to move too, just like the Naya Tola Bhishambharpur. It is like a game of musical chairs as the Gandak, on whose bank Bhaesaya Reta Tola and Naya Tola Bhishambharpur are located, keeps meandering and changing its course, displacing local people and forcing them to relocate ever so often.
“In my lifetime, our village has been relocated thrice. Displacement and migration are a way of life for us; our only means of survival,” said 32 year-old Brijesh.
The people of Bhaesaya Reta and Naya Tola Bishambharpur have a common predicament - that of the lakhs of migrant workers in Bihar who carry the double burden of internal displacement due to floods and land erosion, and outmigration to earn a living.
Climate change is only making things worse.
Bihar is India’s most flood-prone state and also tops the poverty chart. Outmigration is highly masculinised in the state with over 85% migrants being men.
Multiple rivers and streams criss-cross the fertile silt-laden plains of North Bihar where West Champaran is located. The large rivers are Gandak, Burhi Gandak, Kosi, Kamla Balan, Mahananda and Bagmati-Adhwara that originate from the Himalayas in Nepal and drain into the Ganga in Bihar. The massive floods this year hit 26 districts and affected 4.5 million people in Bihar.
Seasonal migrant Kishore Paswan of Marjadi village in Gaunaha block of West Champaran stands in front of Kataha, a seasonal river which often brings flash floods to his village. Nidhi Jamwal/The Migration Story
“Since the past few years, we are seeing a new trend in monsoon rainfall in Bihar. Throughout the monsoon, from June till early September, the state receives deficient rainfall and drought-like conditions affect the Kharif crop. But towards the end of the season, very heavy rainfall leads to flooding,” said Eklavya Prasad, managing trustee of Megh Pyne Abhiyaan, a non-profit working on water and sanitation issues in Bihar. “This catches people unaware and also washes away their standing crop. This is what happened in the recent flood too,” he said.
Poor understanding of river systems and a repeated cycle of floods and displacement forces people to migrate from the state, Prasad said.
The drought and flood cycle
According to the India Meteorological Department, India’s official weather agency, between June 1 and September 25, Bihar had ‘deficient’ rainfall. Against its normal monsoon rainfall of 959.4 millimetre (mm), the state had received only 690 mm.
However, following continuous heavy rainfall in Nepal and Bihar, rivers in the region swelled up, causing heavy floods on the night of September 28-29 in the whole of North Bihar, a region comprising 21 out of the 38 districts in the state.
“We were sleeping when water entered our huts. We quickly gathered our essentials but could not step out as it was pitch dark. With the first rays of the sun, a dengi (boat) was organised. The water was already up to chest-level when we left the village,” recalled Manju Devi of Naya Tola Bhishambharpur.
In Bhaesaya Reta, meanwhile, 500 families lost their homes, stored food grain and standing paddy. For the migrant men from this village who work in Mumbai, Delhi and even Kashmir, the idea of home is never one place.
“Our village was originally on the left bank of the Gandak. The river kept eroding our land and we were forced to move till we reached the forest (Valmiki Tiger Reserve) and had no place to build our homes,” said Brijesh.
Chhatu Nishad of Bhaesaya Reta tola in Piprasi block of West Champaran said that he has had to relocate 17 times as Gandak river kept eroding the village’s land and displacing people. Nidhi Jamwal/The Migration Story
Chhatu Nishad, in his 70s, has relocated 17 times. “Every time we rebuild our home, Ganga ji (Gandak) washes it away,” he said. His misery did not seem to shake his reverence for the Gandak that originates in Nepal and spans seven districts in Bihar and two in Uttar Pradesh.
It was only when Bhaesaya Reta finally hit the forest boundary after multiple displacements, the state government allocated them land in Semra Labedaha Panchayat of Piprasi block on the border of Bihar’s West Champaran district and Uttar Pradesh’s Kushinagar district. “Each household was allotted four Dismil land (1742.4 square feet) on the right bank of the Gandak and we had been living there since 2009. Our original village has been submerged in the river for the past many years,” said Brijesh.
On October 3, when The Migration Story visited Bhaesaya Reta, the houses were broken and filled with debris and muck left behind by the floodwaters. Villagers were living on a baandh (river embankment) under shelters made with tarpaulin sheets and thin bamboo poles.
A flood-hit house in Bhaesaya Reta tola in Piprasi block of West Champaran. Floodwater has receded but left behind debris and muck. Nidhi Jamwal/The Migration Story
House reconstruction, sans the men who would leave soon to earn, is the woman’s responsibility, said Manju Devi. “During floods, there is no place to defecate. Floodwater brings snakes and we have to keep our children safe. Once the water recedes, we leave our children and husband on the embankment and make daily visits to our flood-hit homes. Snakes and scorpions hide inside. We spend the day cleaning the house and rebuilding a portion of it, and return to the embankment in the evening,” Manju Devi said. Often women have to ask their mayeka (parents) for money to rebuild the house, she added.
“Majority of the youth from Naya Tola migrate to Punjab, Haryana and to southern Indian states to work as agricultural and construction labour. Because of frequent floods, there is no livelihood here and farming is not profitable,” said Kumod Kumar Das of Megh Pyne Abhiyaan.
Deepening poverty and increasing outmigration
The deal is worse for landless people. Rita Devi from Marjadi village in Gaunaha block stood outside her kachcha hut, visibly worried about the overcast sky. “My husband has gone to Punjab to harvest paddy. There isn’t enough farm labour work in and around the village. Daily wage is just Rs 200. So even during chaumasa (four months of monsoon), he doesn’t return home. But whenever he does, he brings Rs 6,000- Rs 8,000,” said Rita.
Rita Devi of Marjadi village in Gaunaha block of West Champaran is landless. Her husband goes to Punjab to harvest paddy even during kharif season. Nidhi Jamwal/The Migration Story
“As the floods occur year by year, North Bihar faces a mounting crisis of socio-economic fragility, accelerating a wave of climate-induced migration,” said campaigner Prasad. “At the same time, many migrants who leave the region in search of better opportunities send home remittances to invest in agriculture and build houses, only for these investments to be repeatedly destroyed by the floods. These recurring disasters not only erase years of hard-earned progress but also deepen the cycle of displacement and poverty,” he added.
Prasad’s observations are backed by research. Fourteen out of 50 districts most vulnerable to climate change in India are in Bihar, noted a 2020 study, Climate Vulnerability Assessment for Adaptation Planning in India Using a Common Framework.
Another 2024 paper, Climate variability and migration in Bihar: An empirical analysis studies the relationship between climate variability, hazards and migration in Bihar. The researchers found that relative deprivation and growth prospects are not the only factor behind mobility, but climatic variability plays a role too, and that flood disaster is a significant reason for out-migration in Bihar.
Kishore Paswan of Marjadi village may not understand the term climate variability, but he knows something is not right with the monsoon rainfall. “I have been migrating to Andhra Pradesh for 15 years and now speak fluent Telugu. It is impossible to make a living in our village as we are situated right next to Kataha, a seasonal pahadi river. Flash floods are becoming common, causing massive erosion,” said Paswan who works as a construction contractor.
Work underway to strengthen a breached embankment of Gandak river on October 2, 2024, in West Champaran district. Nidhi Jamwal/The Migration Story
Ramesh Sah, his fellow villager, pointed out Kataha had already brought ten flood events this year. “No one sleeps in the village when it rains. Water levels can rise in a matter of minutes,” said Sah.
Changing nature of floods
The pattern of floods in Bihar has undergone a change, said Ishteyaque Ahmad, a Patna-based Participatory Researcher and Consultant with non-profit ASAR.
“North Bihar has always been prone to floods. People knew how to adjust with the river and its changing course. But, floods had some predictability. The water level rose slowly and after 10-15 days, it drained out,” Ahmad told The Migration Story.
Such floods were beneficial for the crops and villagers welcomed them by singing folk songs dedicated to rivers, informed Ahmad. “Earlier people grew local flood tolerant varieties of paddy like Desariya Dhaan. When floods came in July-August, they helped inundate the paddy fields and sustain the crop,” said Ahmad.
“Even as such varieties have disappeared now, floods only occur in late September and October. The water level rises high very fast and damages the ready to harvest paddy completely,” he added.
A villager tries to salvage paddy in Bhaesaya Reta tola in Piprasi block of West Champaran. Floods washed away standing paddy crops. Nidhi Jamwal/The Migration Story
Is it just climate change?
Even though the 2024 floods in North Bihar highlight the increasing impacts of climate change, they also reveal how the climate narrative is sometimes misused to mask the failures of our flood management systems, said Prasad.
Several rivers run through the plains of Bihar that have their catchment in the Himalayas of Nepal. They carry a high level of sediment load which is deposited on the plains of Bihar. “All the rivers in North Bihar are heavily silted — unka pet bhara hua hai [their stomach is full]. How will they carry excess water from floods? The Ganga itself is heavily silted and imagine it has to carry all the water of several rivers that drain into it, and there is Farakka barrage downstream,” said Ahmad.
But this sediment load does not spread on the floodplains, due to embankments that restrict the river’s flow.
In 1954, embankments were planned as a flood control measure along the Kosi river. The embankments are a mud and stone earthen wall usually 10-12 metres wide at the base and 5 metres wide at the top. Over the past few decades, embankments have been built along all the major rivers of Bihar, including one running through a 510 kilometres stretch along the Gandak.
But as the length of embankments has increased in Bihar, the state’s flood-prone area has grown too. The embankments often breach, causing widespread damage. According to the 2019 report of the Bihar Water Resources Department, from 1987 to 2018, 408 embankments had breached in the state.
While villages outside the embankment are protected, those trapped within them next to the river, like Naya Tola Bishambharpur, face terrible floods. During the recent floods, seven embankments breached, including the one at Bhaesaya Reta.
For centuries, people in North Bihar, India’s most flood prone area, have been living with the rivers and floods. Credit: Water Vagabond.
“While more intense and late rainfall can be attributed to global climate shifts, the region's vulnerability has been exacerbated by years of poorly planned embankments, inadequate drainage systems, and unregulated construction on the floodplains,” complained Prasad.
“It is crucial to recognise that addressing climate change alone won't solve the issue. Without reforming the flawed infrastructural systems and creating a resilient, adaptive approach to flood management, the investments of migrants and local communities will continue to be washed away year after year,” he warned.
Edited by Ravleen Kaur
Nidhi Jamwal is a Mumbai-based journalist who reports on environment, climate, and rural issues.
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