“My kids are crying with hunger; we are left with only the clothes on our backs”
Incessant rainfall in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh has led to a swollen Sharada river that breached its banks and caused mayhem in the villages of Lakhimpur Kheri and Pilibhit districts in UP. Rescue operations are underway.
Revathi Purva (Lakhimpur Kheri), Uttar Pradesh
The roar of the river water was everywhere in the village, drowning the cries of the people as they tried to salvage what they could from their homes before their belongings were washed away. Some carried sacks of grain on their heads as they tried to find higher ground to shelter in while others bundled their children into boats to get them to a safer place.
Hardly anyone had eaten their evening meal in Revthi Purva village as the waters had swept away their grains and the stoves.
“My children are crying with hunger. Before I could save the atta, dal and chawal, they were washed away. My chulha is gone too. All we own now are the clothes on our backs,” Malati Devi, from Revthi Purva village in Lakhimpur Kheri district, Uttar Pradesh, told Gaon Connection. A wall of 57-year-old Malati Devi’s home also collapsed in the flooding.
The inhabitants of Revthi Purva had a harrowing 24 hours as most of their homes had two to three feet of water. Some spent the night on the roofs of their homes as on October 19 night, the Sharada river breached her banks and the waters gushed into the village. Some who had LPG gas cylinders cooked something on their terraces, while many others, like Malati Devi and her family, went hungry.
Heavy rainfall and floods in UP
Since October 17, many districts in Uttar Pradesh have been lashed with incessant rains, which subsided only on October 20. Heavy rains have displaced several villagers and also led to considerable damage to paddy, sugarcane, banana and vegetable cultivation in the state.
Five out of the seven tehsils of Lakhimpur Kheri were inundated in the three days of continuous rains that lashed the district. Added to the watery nightmare was the more than 500,000 cusecs of water released from the Banbasa Barrage at Uttarakhand. The Himalayan state has been hit by heavy rains causing landslides and killing at least 52 people.
The waters released from the Banbasa Barrage in Uttarakhand entered several villages in Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri and Bijnaur where alerts were issued. The army and the National Disaster Response Force were called in for rescue operations.
It was way back in 2013 that this volume of water was released from the Banbasa Barrage, Arvind Kumar Chaurasiya, the district magistrate of Lakhimpur Kheri said. According to him, that year 544,000 cusecs of water was released, and 181 villages were affected.
Also Read: Ishrat Jahan epitomises the pain of farmers repeatedly hit by extreme weather events
Two days back, on October 19, the waters of the swollen Sharada river had begun overflowing into the villages in Lakhimpur Kheri.
Despite the alert issued by the district administration and police teams being deployed, many people were still stranded. The army had to be called to begin rescue operations.
Floods in October
“We are used to the river flooding, but I have seen nothing like this in fifty years,” Ram Vilas, who had sought refuge on his bullock cart in Lakhimpur Kheri, told Gaon Connection. “The rice, wheat, and everything else has been washed away,” the 60-year-old said.
A 120 kilometres away from Revathi Purva, a boat overturned at Isha Nagar, in Nijua block of the district. Of the 14 people in the boat, 10 were rescued while the search is on for the remaining four. Arvind Kumar Chaurasiya, the district magistrate, and police officer Vijay Dhul, were on a tour of the affected areas.
They were caught unprepared, said village inhabitants of Revathi Pura. They had not expected so much water, they said.
“We could save nothing at all, except our own lives. The sack of grains was washed away, and the single cot I had also broke,” Sunita Devi told Gaon Connection.
“Eleven boats and several tractor trolleys have been employed to move people from the Revathi Purva village, into camps set up at the Diksha University campus, where they are being looked after and fed,” Mohit Kumar Maurya, a district official, told Gaon Connection.
“Many homes have collapsed but there have been no loss of life,” Maurya added. According to him, the waters in the village are yet to recede.
Pilibhit district affected too
The Sharada river did not spare Pilibhit district either. Dozens of villages are flooded leaving hundreds of people in grief. The district administration has been rescuing people with the help of the Indian Air Force helicopters and moving them to safe places.
“Twenty six inhabitants of Gunhan village were rescued in two sorties of the helicopters that launched the rescue at 6 am,” Pulkit Khare, district magistrate, Pilibhit said. The district magistrate also said that the affected people were provided with rations too.
Uttar Pradesh received 88 millimetre (mm) of rainfall between October 1 and October 20, as opposed to the 29.6 mm it should have normally received, shows the rainfall data of the India Meteorological Department.
In the neighbouring state of Uttarakhand, the rainfall received for the same period was 192.7 mm instead of 31.2 mm. The heaviest rainfall in both states occurred on October 18 causing untold damage to property, roads and crops.
Read the story in Hindi.