While the main river course looks almost dried up now, the new channel is still in the making. The breach at Kushaha, 360 km from Patna, is a story of horror. Though the river switched back to its course of 1932, it ended up changing the geography of many districts — Supaul, Araria, Madhepura, Purnea, Saharsa and Katihar. Over 20 lakh people have been marooned.

The roar of the Kosi at the breach, extending up to 3 kilometres, tells not just the story of a natural disaster but also of bureaucratic callousness and carelessness of Bihar engineers, who were content with dropping truckloads of stones at the embankment as a measure of pre-flood arrangement. The breach cannot be repaired for the next five months. Worse, it is feared that it cannot be repaired at all.

People of Kushaha and Sripur villages alleged slow pace of repair between May and July by Kosi Project engineers from Bihar. They accused the Nepal forest officials of taking a commission of Rs 1,500 per truck to carry boulders. “Indian engineers would come here in swanky vehicles, leaving their juniors to save the river from breaching,” said Hari Khanga, a Sripur resident.

Kosi had last breached in 1952 near Nabhatta, Saharsa. Bhartiya Nadighati Manch convenor Bhagwanji Pathak said the river would mellow down only after merging with the Ganga at Khursaila in Katihar. The stray journey of the river is around 325 km from the breach. The Kosi Barrage, 11 km from the breach site, looks irrelevant. All its 56 gates have been opened. These can release only 22,000 cusecs daily as against 1.43 lakh cusecs from the breach.

While a Unicef team has taken care of the displaced people in Nepal, the Indian side tells a grim story. Some people from Birpur have crossed over to Nepal.

Supaul is the worst hit with 70 per cent of its area — under Basantpur, Pratapganj, Triveniganj, Chhatapur and Raghopur blocks — getting submerged. Basudev Kumar, a Lalpur resident at Birpur, narrated how his wife and in-laws were surrounded with water at Balua village, a VIP area of Disaster Management Minister Nitish Mishra. “Only 10 small government boats (carrying 15 people) have been operating in peripheral area of Birpur,” he said.

Thousands of people were still marooned in Bela, Bodh, Banaili, Bishanpur and Birwa villages. The link road from Bhimnagar to Birpur has been washed away at four places. Saharsa-Bipur, Madhepura-Purnea and Udakishanganj-Madhepura are partly submerged.

There were no signs of air-dropping of relief material. Locals said no helicopter had come on Wednesday. A doctor at the camp said the relief was not at all “satisfactory”. A flood victim complained that his family had not got any food for five days. “All these relief camp people come here at 11 pm. They treat victims very rudely,” said Rambahadur Thakur, a Lalpur resident.

People at four rehabilitation camps at Birpur-Madhepura Road said food packets were not distributed properly. “The packets are thrown at us, some get it and some do not,” said Mohammed Jaynul. Over 20,000 people are living at camps between Birpur and Raghopur. Over one lakh need to be evacuated in Birpur sub-division. While there are only 200 government and private boats, private boatmen are making money at the rate of Rs 2,000-4,000 a trip.

The under-construction East-West Corridor on NH-107 at Raghopur has been hosting over 40,000 people. While Raghopur MLA Niraj Kumar Bablu is more interested in photo ops, Sonbarsa Raj MLA Kishore Kumar Munna has won praise by helping out. Eleven blocks of neighbouring Madhepura have also been partly submerged. The worst affected areas are Alamnagar, Uda Kishanganj, Kumarkhand, Gwalpada and Murliganj.