While thousands of poor people - with cattle as their sole property - have left their inundated homes in Madhepura and Supaul villages, the better-off people are still unwilling to move far away from their houses.

Over 4,000 people from Madhepura and Saharsa, along with those at Madhepura-Bihariganj Road, are staying put at the Jorba canal embankment, two-three kilometres away from their marooned villages. And many of them take boats, at least once a day, to visit their homes and confirm that their belongings kept in rooms on the first floor are not stolen. Several villagers swim all the way back to their villages to place locks on the gates of their houses.

Their fears are not unfounded. People from areas not affected by the flood strike at deserted houses in these villages and steal whatever is worth carrying through the waist-deep water.

“I found my cot missing when I visited my flooded house to get more belongings. Calamity has come as a god-sent opportunity for thieves and hoodlums,” said Mahadev Mukhiya of Reshma village. Another villager, Sitaram Yadav from Sadhua, said he had found two sacks of wheat stolen from his house. He said the occasional distribution of 2 kg chura wouldn’t sustain them for long.

The local administrations of Saharsa, Madhepura and Supaul have been receiving several complaints of thefts at deserted houses. Officials at relief camps said that though they were aware of such incidents, there was very little they could do. Additional Secretary (disaster management) Pratyay Amrit said their prime concerns were to supply relief to victims and rescue as many of them as possible.

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