This is the latest from Bihar up to 31st July 2004.

No: of Districts Affected: 20 (All north Bihar Districts minus Saran and Siwan)
Blocks affected           199 (Out of 320 in North Bihar)
Panchayats Affected          2724
Villages Affected           9277
Population Affected          21.18 millions (Total 52.3 million-2001 North Bihar)
Flood Affected Area          49.86 LH ( Total 54 LH-North Bihar)
Crops Damaged Over          13.42 LH
Value of Crops Damaged     Rs. 332.83 Crores ( @Rs. 2480/per hectare or Rs.1033/Acre)
No: of Houses Damaged     674,097
Value of Houses Damaged     Rs.298.67 Crores (@ Rs 4400/- per house)
Public Property Worth     Rs. 391.45 Crores
No: of Human Lives Lost     570
Cattle life Lost               1915
No: of Boats Deployed     7308 (@ persons 2898 per boat)
Readymade food distributed     2712 Tons (@ Rs. 128 grams per person)
G.R.Distributed          9269 Tons
Cash Dole Distributed          Rs. Rs.3.55 Crores ( @Rs. 1.67 per person)
Polythene Sheets Distributed     4,21,073 ( Equivalent to 21,05,365 persons)
Total Dry Food Airdropped.     769 Tons

Source: Report of Disaster Management Department, GOB, Dated 1st August 2004.

(Note: Figures in bracket are supplied by Barh Mukti Abhiyan)

There is some controversy about the cost of airdropping food materials. Writes Dipak Mishra of  Times of India (Patna-2nd August 2004), “ strange are the logistics involved in relief material to the marooned people in the flood hit districts of the state. Till now relief material worth less than Rs. 1 crore have been airdropped but it has cost the government a whopping Rs. 8 crore, said a senior government official.

He said the cost of hiring army helicopters is around Rs. 80,000 per hour. And with 10 helicopters having already made 416 sorties to 19 flood hit districts to drop food packets till Sunday, one can very well imagine the ‘skyrocketing’ cost incurred by the government.

One would be compelled to thinkthat with the government spending so much on chopper assisted relief work, many flood-hit victims would be benefited. But of the 50 lakh population estimated to be marooned by flood, only 400 were rescued by choppers.

“It is all show business. For each trip, the government pays more than Rs. I lakh for the chopper while only 1500 food packets are loaded of which half the material is lost in the flood water while there is a mad scramble for the other half.” Said Hayaghat MLA Umadhar Prasad Singh…..



Best wishes.


Dinesh Mishra







On Wed, 28 Jul 2004 vagish wrote :
>Friends,
>Please see an article on the recurrent phenomenon of flood in Bihar the possible role of Dams. It is contained in the Dainik Hindustan, dated 27.7.4 ( Delhi Edition) on the editorial page. I am sending the link, but the font has to be downloaded to read it.
>http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/2031_910125,0065000600000007.htm
>
>Vagish K. Jha
>