Bagmati river embankment breaches causing floods and widespread destruction

Photograph of flooding due to breach in Bagmati's embankment, taken by NGO: Ghoghardiha Prakhand Swarajya Vikas Sangh, Madhubani"

The Bagmati River in north Bihar breached its embankment near Tajpur in Runnisayedpur block of Bihar's Sitamarhi District on Saturday August 1st 2009 betweeen 04 and 05 hours. The state government responded quickly with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar overseeing deployment of Disaster Responses forces and ordering a high level probe.

A PTI report estimated the breach at 40-50 mts., innundating several villages in 8 blocks of the district, and affecting a lakh of people. The breach of the embankment is to be seen in the context of the widespread havoc and loss of life caused by the breach of Kosi's embankment last August in Nepal, and the recurring flooding and disasters in Bihar in every year.

We are updating the special section related to Bihar flooding on the IWP blog https://www.indiawaterportal.org/bihar with reports of this recent flooding and background information. Please click on the link above to visit our Bihar section.