PURNIA, India: Some villagers began trying to return to their flooded homes in eastern India yesterday as waters slowly receded, but officials warned the move was risky with a month of heavy rains still expected.
Almost 900,000 people have been evacuated to higher ground since flood defense walls broke upstream in Nepal almost three weeks ago, shifting the flow of the Kosi River away from its normal course and east onto farmland.
Large swathes of the impoverished state of Bihar were flooded. About 100,000 people remain marooned in village islands by the river, with most refusing to leave, while some evacuees are trying to head home.
“We have reached a stage where people in the thousands are still left, but they are now refusing to come out,” state disaster management official Pratyaya Amrit told AFP. “People think the flood is over. In a lot of the camps people have started moving back. In the last two to three days, at least 10,000 to 15,000 have gone back.”
