Patna: Bihar’s Kosi region is unique in more than one way, with the mighty river swelling almost every year during monsoon season and soil erosion adding to woes, every house in Kosi has a story of tragedy to tell. There is a pain caused by flooding and the people’s subsequent migration with no end of the problems in sight.
The great poet Rahim Das eulogised the importance of water in human life in many of his couplets, but the curse of Kosi River has made life miserable for millions of people of the region.
People’s life in Kosi region starts only when the flood water recedes which is an annual feature. Tragedies of people in Kosi region are so perennial that they cannot dream of life without them. These have become a part of every house in Kosi - pain of soil erosion, pain of migration of loved ones and pain of life. This is the biggest truth of life for the people of Kosi region in Bihar.
The every day things in Kosi have come to a standstill in view of promises and various claims made by the leaders of different political parties during the Bihar Assembly elections. Even in the changed political regime and the age of good governance, the people of Kosi are also still waiting for their good days to come, but their wait continues to be endless.
Hardly any effort is being made to address the pain of the people of Kosi region. On August 18, 2008, Kosi River breached every embankment and the damage of the Kusha dam caused such a massive devastation that the memory of it still haunts the people of the area.
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Wishing to return to the days they had before August 18, 2008, people are waiting for their pain to subside.
They still cherish those moments but get the shock of life when they remember the havoc the water wreaked in their lives. A total population of more than 45 lakhs spread out in 412 panchayats consisting of 993 villages in 35 blocks of Supaul, Madhepura, Saharsa, Araria and Purnia districts were affected by the havoc of Kosi in 2008.
According to official figures, only 270 people died but even today thousands of people are still searching for their loved ones. 4.15 lakh hectares of fields became barren on a layer of six to 13 feet of sand lay. Politicians shed lots of tears on this tragedy. The then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took an aerial survey of the region. He said that the tragedy of the Kosi was the tragedy of the country and had promised every help but everything remained on the paper as usual.
Why Kosi wreaks havoc
The river Kosi emanates from the Himalayas and has changed its course of 120 km in 250 years. Its total area is 729 km. In 1954, an attempt was made to build an embankment on this river, but the Kosi did not accept it. Since 1954, the dam has broken seven times so far. According to a report published by the American Society of Civil Engineering in March 1966, between 1938 and 1957, about 100 million cubic meters of sediment is deposited annually on the banks of the Kosi River. Even after the construction of the barrage, the edge of Kosi is rising due to the sediment deposition. The 1968 floods in which Kosi’s water flow was 25,000 cumecs, remains an unbroken record so far.
Just promises in name of relief
On May 19, 2010, Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar inaugurated the Kosi Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Scheme. It was decided that they would resettle the people hit hard by the Kosi River.
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It is not possible to compensate for the pain that nature has given to them, but if one has to live his life, he will certainly live notwithstanding all odds and adverse circumstances. In the name of reconstruction, the target of building 25,958 houses was set for every year. Ironically, even after 12 years, this expectation of the people in the Kosi region is struggling in the waves of Kosi River.
Year after year, life’s course is also changing, but if something has not changed is the pain and trauma that is caused by River Kosi every year. If there is any change in the Kosi region, it is the promise of every leader who comes and makes a new promise and leaves. People’s pain is intact. They keep waiting for a new set of promises when the earlier ones get old or outdated. This has become a reality of their lives with which they have been living for years now!
Since 2008 people have been struggling against all odds caused by the Kosi River every year with the hope that their woes will be addressed. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, people had hoped that since Lalu Prasad Yadav was a part of the government at the Centre, he would help improve the situation. His promises like that of many others also proved to be an electoral promise.
In the Vidhan Sabha elections of 2010, people were told that a lot has to be changed. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar even started the Kosi Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Scheme on May 19, 2010 to check the damage caused by the River Kosi. In 2014, when Narendra Modi took the command of the campaign of the BJP, he also said that good days are coming for the people of Kosi region.
0In 2015, Nitish Kumar's own claim that he would do everything possible to help the people of Kosi brought cheers to them and they voted for him and Lalu Prasad Yadav en bloc. In 2019, the two-engine government also went on promising to revive people’s life in Kosi’s region and wrote another story of making promises. It is not that Kosi did not trust the leaders, who make promises, but they bemoan the fact that the promises made to them are rarely fulfilled. In the battle of ballots for 2020, everyone is busy in making every possible bid to grab the power.
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The people of Kosi are once again seeking support for themselves. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, in a changed political mood, said on the last day of the 2020 election campaign that this was going to be his last election. Now Kosi is again caught in the conundrum of promises, reconciling with the pain they have inherited but without giving up their hope for prosperity.
All's well that ends well
Nitish Kumar has played his every single card to win the assembly polls. When the opposition parties are asking for details of development works done in the past 15 years, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar presented his seven decisions for Bihar to the people.
Everything for Bihar is changing, developing, but what about the Kosi region and its people who are still looking for the end of their endless tale of pain. Kosi has been searching for its remedy for the past 15 years under Nitish Kumar’s 15-year long rule. In the Lok Sabha elections held a year ago, Nitish Kumar and Narendra Modi won all the seats in Bihar except Bihar’s Kishanganj district.
All the districts of Kosi are under the political control of the NDA, but Kosi is still looking for the path of development. After trusting Nitish Kumar every time, now he has to trust that this is his last election but no one has given any time limit as to when Kosi's pain will end. When Lalu Prasad Yadav was at the Centre, the work did not happen.
Nitish said that it is difficult to say how much Kosi fate will change from what is being said now. The people of Kosi have accepted to live with the pain. Every year flood submerges the area, forcing people to migrate. How long all this continues only time will tell. Politics will continue to take place, but when the pain of Kosi ends.
