While conditions of high levels of distress continue to exist in thousands of villages of Bihar three months after the most devastating floods, in the case of some villages like Sundarpur (block Banjariya) the very existence of the village is threatened by relentless river erosion which has already gobbled many fields and houses of this village.            

Sheikh Mirazul has been forced to move his hut a few meters away to protect it from the angry waters of Burhi Gandak river. But he is not sure whether his 8-member family will survive even in the new house.      

"This river has destroyed many already. Many fields have been destroyed by erosion and sand deposited by river."

Siftan Ansari heads a joint family which lived in a huge house. "A part of it is destroyed and more is threatened. A village mosque is threatened."            

The village mukhiya Habibullah says, "To some extent the entire village is threatened by erosion. Similar is the case of several other villages like Ajgarwan, Jatvaan, Khairi and Mohammadpur."      

Many farmers living near river-bank are also affected very adversely by the sand deposited in their fields during the floods. They have not been able to cultivate the rabi (winter) crop and the fate of their fields is very uncertain.

In other places like Chakiya Kalyanpur, Kesariya, Sangrampur and Kotwaan, people informed us, flood-water has continued to remain stranded in many fields and this problem of water logging has deprived farmers of the rabi (winter) crop also after the complete devastation of the kharif (summer) crop.

The farmers and villages threatened by erosion, sand-deposition and water logging suffer even greater distress and face more severe threats in future as well. Therefore they need special care and attention.

Vardaahan panchayat has several families who had to re-locate after their fields were eroded by river. An idea of the distress conditions prevailing here can be had from the fact that in the presence of the mukhiya and sarpanch (head-persons), villagers told us that several hunger deaths have taken place in their village.