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Patna/New Delhi: Rising rivers in eastern India swamped new areas and destroyed homes yesterday, affecting more than 2 million people, as some frustrated villagers beat up officials and others remained glued to radio weather bulletins.
Torrential rains have killed more than 1,000 people in South Asia since the monsoon began in June, mainly in India's states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh but also in Nepal and Bangladesh.
The Koshi river in the eastern state of Bihar, one of India's poorest regions, has broken its mud embankments in several places. The river also broke a dam in neighbouring Nepal, worsening the floods, Bihar officials said.
The death toll in the state rose to 42 after 12 more villagers drowned in swirling waters.
"Many villagers are still trapped and stranded at various places and our challenge is to save their lives," Nitish Mishra, a government official said.
Local people call the Koshi the "Sorrow of Bihar" for its regular floods and ability to quickly change course. Thousands of people in the state have taken refuge on embankments, roads and mounds.
Aerial survey
"The Koshi river has changed its course and nearly 2-2.5 million people of the areas have been affected," Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of the state, said after an aerial survey of the flood situation.
Some experts blame the floods on heavier monsoon rains caused by global warming.
Last year, floods in eastern India and Bangladesh killed around 2,000 people. Millions were affected and officials fear climate change will make similar disasters more frequent.
Others accuse some states of not spending enough money on disaster prevention efforts. In India's most populous northern state of Uttar Pradesh, the toll from this year's floods rose to 721, with four more deaths reported overnight, officials said.
Indian authorities warned of more rain in eastern India, including Bihar, with heavy falls in the next 4-5 days.
Angry villagers in Bihar beat up government officials and a politician in flood-hit Araria district near the Nepal border, when they arrived on a fact-finding trip.
"Their anger is natural since they never thought that floods would leave them stranded in this way and they were not prepared to face the floods which happened suddenly," Suraj Kumar Sinha, a senior state official, said by telephone yesterday.
India's annual monsoon arrives in early June and retreats in September. It is vital for the irrigation of farmland in a nation heavily reliant on agriculture.
But it leaves in its wake massive destruction, killing hundreds of people, destroying homes, crops, roads and bridges.
Some people also refused to leave their homes in Bihar and turned rescuers in boats away, officials said.
Rising rivers have also swamped 36,400 hectares of cropland in the state, as wheat and paddy fields were lying under water.
Seven villages were swept away by the Koshi river in southeast Nepal, where the river Koshi broke through the dam, which was built by India to protect Bihar.
Air force
Air force helicopters and troops have been ferrying food to some stricken villagers but officials from the state warned that the real danger was still ahead.
Nepali officials blame India for failing to carry out necessary repair and maintenance of the dam under an agreement between the two countries.
At least 40,300 people in Nepal have been affected by the flooding and authorities said there could be more breaches, unless repaired quickly.
Indian officials appealed to more than 1 million people in flood-ravaged northern India to flee for their lives yesterday, saying they faced death from a surging river if they remained in their homes.
The death toll from this year's monsoon has already climbed past 800, and now some 1.2 million people have been marooned and about 2 million more affected in northern India's Bihar state, where the Kosi river has burst its banks, breached safety embankments and submerged all roads leading to the region.
Pictures from the region yesterday, the first images since the remote area was cut off last week from the rest of India by the flooding, showed entire villages submerged and women wading through waist-high muddy waters, sacks of belongings balanced on their heads.
Families perched on the roofs of their houses waiting for aid while others piled into precariously overloaded canoes.
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