Supaul: It takes a boat ride across one of the channels of the Kosi river to reach Piprahi village in Bihar’s Supaul district, which falls under the Nirmali assembly constituency. The village is located about two-and-a-half km from Dighia chowk on the Sikrahatta-Manjhari low embankment. There was a time when the channel used to be shallow in the months of September and October and one could cross it on foot. In the last three or four years, however, it has become the Kosi’s main channel, holding so much water all 12 months that it cannot be traversed without a boat.

Dozens of small boats line both banks of the river. Women and girls can be seen placing their bales of grass on the boats and ferrying themselves home near the embankment. It is a daily activity for them, walking several kilometres of the floodplains for four to five hours every day, collecting fodder for their cattle.

The inhabitants of Piprahi and five other villages located to the east of the SMLE embankment have had to face the wrath of floods five times between May and September this year.

Piprahi, Dholi, Kataia, Bhulia, Siani and Jhahura are located in the area between the river and the Kosi’s eastern and western embankments. (In 2001, there were 380 such villages located between the two Kosi embankments, with a population of 9.88 lakh, as per the Census.)  The construction of these embankments under the Kosi Project began in 1954 and was completed in 1962. Fourteen years later, the Sikrahatta-Manjhari low embankment was constructed inside the western embankment. Eighteen km long, according to government records, the embankment in a sorry state, riddled with potholes.

Also read: Bihar: In Flood Ravaged West Champaran, Locals Disillusioned With Elections, Leaders

Moreover, today there are three channels of the Kosi flowing between Piprahi and the original eastern embankment, which is eight km away. That is the kind of fluid situation these villages are faced with, and boats have become indispensable for their survival. Of the six villages, Piprahi and Jhahura come under Nirmali Block, while Dholi, Kataia, Bhulia and Siani are part of Saraigarh Bhaptiyahi Block. All of them fall under the Nirmali assembly constituency.

The scourge of floods and official neglect

Former sarpanch of Piprahi, Ramji Singh, relives the harrowing ordeal of recurring floods. The first flood came on May 13. By September they had experienced the onslaught of floods five times, bearing the brunt of the Kosi from the east and the west.

Singh says, “Not only was 1500 acres of standing crop destroyed, the water came up to waist level in the village as well. As the situation worsened, we sent the womenfolk and children by boat to relatives in other parts. Then we collected our belongings and cattle and made for the embankment, returning to the village only after the water had receded.  In this dire situation, our big boat proved to be a boon not only for our family but the villagers as well.”

The boat belonging to his family is big, it can hold about 150 people at one time. Singh’s nephew Gunanand, an army jawan who has come home for a break, recounts how he had the boat built eight months ago for a hefty price of Rs 3 lakh. In 2019, when the village was flooded, he was on duty. “When I got to know that the flood water had entered the houses, I a big boat owner in Dudhaula village and offered him up to Rs 20,000 to rescue my family and other villagers marooned in Piprahi,” recalls the army jawan. The boat owner could not make it and Gunanand’s family went through a traumatic experience.

“That was when I made up my mind that I would spend the three lakh rupees I had saved for a house on getting a boat built,” he says. “The boat, which was built in Simrahi, required 26 quintals of iron. The man who built it charged a wage of Rs 3500 per quintal. But the boat gave us the confidence that in times of flood we need not be at the mercy of the government and the administration,” he adds.

Also read: Floods in Bihar Destroyed 7.54 Lakh Hectares of Agricultural Land This Year

Gunanand knows that the villagers would not be able to put together Rs 3 lakh to get such a boat made. “Since I was employed, I could somehow arrange the money,” he remarks. His boat is much talked about and is popularly known as the “armyman’s boat”.

Former sarpanch Singh’s grouse is that the government and the administration are never able to provide a boat to them in times of crisis. “During the flood we called the Member of Parliament from Supaul. He said he had organised 50 boats, but none came our way,” he remarks.

Budhan Singh, another Piprahi resident, makes a sarcastic crack that while the officials come by steamer to see the flood damage, they don’t show the same efficiency in organising boats for people in distress.

In normal times or during floods, boats are a lifeline

For the villagers who live in the area between the river and its embankments, having access to a boat has become as essential as food – a basic necessity, in fact. Without boats their lives would come to a standstill, be it going anywhere outside the village, transporting crops and fodder, or taking the sick to the hospital, whatever the time. The boat is the only means of conveyance to take them till the embankment or road, from where they have other options to reach their destination.

The people of Piprahi’s neighbouring village Dholi, too, have had two big iron boats built this year. There are a sufficient number of small boats in the villages. For instance, Piprahi has more than 30 of them, which are plied on a daily basis for household chores and livelihood activities. From Dighia to Sikrarhatta, villagers living on both sides of the embankments have kept boats as their lifeline.

One small boat costs about Rs 35000 and it can seat up to two or three people. Bigger boats made of sheesham, jamun or sal cost about Rs 70,000 and are useful in transporting crops. However, during floods, it is the boats made of iron that prove most useful. As mentioned earlier, the ‘armyman’s boat’ in Piprahi can carry about 150 people at one time. It can even hold a JCB or tractor, or up to 40 maunds of crop (one maund is about 37 kg).

Also read: Bihar: Kosi Project's Promise of Flood-Free Prosperity Remains a Distant Dream

In Sikrahatta Churiasi village, which falls under the Dagmara gram panchayat in Nirmali assembly constituency, Sanjay is involved in making a boat out of jamun wood. The boat has been built and is now getting a coat of tar all over. Sanjay, who spent Rs 70000 on it, says it will now be easy for him to go to his fields on the other side of the river and bring back fodder for his cattle at home.

In fact, the most visible activity along the Sikrahatta-Manjhari low embankment is boat construction. People across villages have thrown themselves into the endeavour.  It is clear as daylight that more boats are needed to avoid mishaps on the river and to facilitate transportation for daily life activities. Yet the state government has done little on this front.

The fate of those villagers who were displaced when the work on the Kosi embankments started, is no better. The state government had been quick to assure them that they would be provided boats to reach their fields within the embankments, but that has not been done to this day.

During floods or in normal times, villagers living inside the embankments have to travel outside to the nearest market or the block, tehsil and district head office. Similarly, those who have been displaced and are living outside the embankment, need to come inside to reach their fields. Boats are indispensable either way.

It is a routine sight in Nirmali and Supaul – hundreds of villagers trudging 20 odd km and covering the final stretch by boat to reach their fields inside the embankment. It is not only time consuming but fraught with risks both for those crossing the river by boat and those trying to wade across. As per the district disaster centre in Supaul, 34 people died by drowning in the river or during floods in 2016-17.  The number rose to 40 in 2017-18.

In Piprahi, Shree Narayan, Arvind Mehta, Budhan Singh and Kelu Singh are unanimous in their view that the government has turned its backs on them. They say, if we go to the officials, they ask us why we are staying inside the embankment in the first place, while politicians tell us that living inside the embankment is bound to have its issues.

Just as the people of Piprahi have been forced to become ‘atmanirbhar’ in organising boats for themselves as a safety measure against floods,  two years ago they constructed a two km long dyke doubling as a rural road. They want the administration to increase its height to five feet,  widen it to 10 feet at the top and extend it around the village so that the flood water does not enter their homes, but they are not very hopeful that it will be done.

Gunanand points out that the administration needs to permanently station two or three big boats in the village, construct a dyke and a mound at a higher elevation. The dyke, he says, will prevent the floodwater from entering the houses. If not, the villagers can move to the mound. As for the big boats, they will come in handy on all occasions.

He says it is impossible to put into words the discomfort caused when the water reaches waist level  – man or woman, they have no recourse but to relieve themselves standing. Moreover, they need to keep awake to save themselves from snakes.

The migration saga continues

Of the 153 houses in Piprahi, except two ‘savarna’ families, all others are Dalit or most backward caste households (Rajdhob and Dhanuk, among others). The maximum number is from the Rajdhob community, with about 600 voters.

Old-timers say when the Kosi embankment construction began in 1954 they were assured of land for land and trees for trees in the place where they would be resettled. That day is yet to come. In fact, they have no idea of the place where they were supposed to be resettled.

As a former sarpanch, Singh mentions that when he went to the district head office in Supaul, he was directed to Saharsa to find out where they had been given land for resettlement. While the officials in Saharsa said they had sent the files back to Supaul, the concerned official in Supaul says they have no records whatsoever.

Singh recalls that earlier there were about 10 big sized villages close to Piprahi, and the maximum number of people were from his community (Rajdhob). Agriculture was a viable occupation. Taken together, these villages were called the ‘Saurashtra sabha’.

Following the construction of the Kosi embankments and barrage, the flood of 1964-65 caused heavy damage. In the 1968 flood Piprahi village was submerged and people were forced to flee. That was when migration began in real earnest, says Singh. “Many went to Madhubani and Chhatapur and a fair number fled to Nepal and settled there. Still others went to states like Haryana and Punjab to find work as labour. Some of us returned when the floodwater receded because our fields were here. Where could we go,” he asks.

In the last two or three years, the flood damage has increased tremendously, states Singh. They grow pulses, wheat, rice, mustard, and vegetables like potato, onion, peas, kheera and lauki, and this year’s flooding has harmed their rice, pulse, and vegetable crop.

Singh explains that all this is happening because the channel to the west of Piprahi has become the main Kosi channel. Due to the construction of some spurs beyond Kunauli, towards Nepal, and the deepening of the channel for cleaning purposes, there is a greater inflow of water into that channel.

There are other contributory factors as well – the western embankment was followed by the Sikrahatta-Manjhari low embankment and after that supporting (guide) embankments were built for the Kosi Mahasetu on both sides, which further narrowed the mouth of the Kosi, leading to more currents in what has become the main channel.

As a result, the migration which began six decades ago, has not halted.  About 50 Piprahi residents who had returned to the village during the COVID 19 lockdown have now gone back to their work as labourers in Haryana and Punjab’s grain mandis. Once that work is over, the villagers will return to the village sometime after Dussehra.

There are only two things in the village that speak of the government machinery – electricity, courtesy of solar energy, which has reached the village, and a primary school with a tin roof, where the villagers will cast their votes in the coming Bihar elections on November 7. The teacher, Gaya Prasad Mandal, is desperately trying to get a generator organised from some other village for voting day as no one in Piprahi has one.

Mandal says there are three teachers in the school including him. About 115 children are enrolled in the village primary school, after which they will have to go to the high school in Dighia. At present there are about 25-30 students from Piprahi attending high school. After that they will have to go to Supaul or Saharsa for further education. Since going to school requires crossing the river, often a difficult task, most villagers send their children to relatives so that they can pursue their studies uninterrupted.

It says a lot for the condition of Piprahi that Gunanand is the only person from the village to secure government employment.  It was not easy for him. After completing inter in Dighia high school he left for Delhi and found a job that paid him Rs 1800. He was also connected to the sewa work performed by a local gurudwara. Pointing out that his lifetime would go in labour, one of the organisers asked Gunanand why he did not join the army. The youngster attended an army selection camp being held in Purnea and cleared both the physical and written examination. He has been with the army for eight years now.

The stark absence of ‘vikas’ in the time of election

The state of affairs in Piprahi remains dismal as ever. Sometimes, due to floods, studies are interrupted for almost five months. For the hundreds of villages like Piprahi that are located within the Kosi embankments, there is virtually nothing by way of public healthcare. The villagers have to rush to Nirmali, Supaul, Darbangha or Saharsa for medical treatment. The problem comes when someone is suddenly taken ill at night – the patient is brought to the river bank on a charpoy and taken by boat to a point where some other transport is available for the hospital.

Also read: COVID-19, a Cornered Nitish and a Teetering Opposition: The Talking Points of Bihar 2020

That’s not all. There is just one toilet in the entire village. All the houses are made of thatch and the villagers have had to install their own hand pumps for water. And, despite the crushing damage inflicted by recurring floods, only 51 villagers have received Rs 6000 by way of assistance! As for the other 102, they are still waiting. They did not get the promised sum the previous year either.

‘Vikas’ – development – is not to be seen anywhere in the village, but those making high-falutin claims of development are poised to swoop down on the village anytime now.

Says Singh, “Everyone comes without fail to ask for our votes. They sit with us, eat with us too, and say we hold their fates in our hands. They make impassioned speeches and ask us to make them victorious, promising us land for resettlement, government money to buy cattle, and fodder. Once the elections are over, they never show their faces again.”

Near the school, Sada Manjhi asks, are you an official? When I reply that I am a journalist, he immediately says, “The government does not do anything. Please write a petition to it to send us the promised assistance of Rs 6000.”

Translated from the Hindi original by Chitra Padmanabhan.

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