PATNA: Around 10 lakh people living between the eastern and western Kosi embankments along the downstream of the river beyond the Birpur barrage are having a nightmarish experience, as the flood fury has continued to lash the basin with no immediate sign of abatement for the last four days.The intensity of their nightmare could be gauged from the fact that 4.14 lakh cusec of water was discharged through the Birpur barrage, after opening its 56 gates on the night of August 25. Back on August 14 this year, the water discharge was the highest ever at 4.62 lakh cusec, according to the flood bulletin released by the water resources department (WRD).Incidentally, the discharge level had fallen to 3.04 lakh cusec by the morning of August 26. However, the water discharge has been in the range of 2.33 lakh cusec to 2.68 lakh cusec over the last three days. On Monday, Kosi was flowing at the danger level at Basua in Supaul district, and slightly below it at Baltara (Khagaria) and Kursela in Katihar district, where the river falls in the Ganga.The people, who live a trapped life between the two embankments, are in dismay as no concrete rehabilitation programme has been launched for them. However, they do get the benefits of various government schemes.As and when floods hit them, these people repair to the high embankments with everything they have. Elderly, women and children in the family live in hutments that they erect, or in the tents made of polythene sheets. There, they wait for the relief materials from the block and circle administrations concerned to survive.Reports emanating from the Kosi basin area said that they have been having a repeat of their displacement, hardships and penurious living due to the floods even this year. While this remains their annual lot caused by the floods in the Kosi, the high-level of migration of men to other states and mega cities for work and to earn money is also the salient feature of their near permanent existential story.Meanwhile, traditionally, the locals respect the river and do not talk ill about it due to its importance in the Hindu mythology. They, however, curse the two embankments for their persistent annual woes. Their predicament is that they cannot leave the land that lies between the two embankments, which they possess.The Birpur barrage across Kosi was constructed in 1959. However, while the estimated number of people living in 304 villages between the two embankments when constructed in 1963 was 1.92 lakh, their number increased to around 9.88 lakh in 2001 living in 384 villages, researches conducted at the time had noted.

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