Due to a flood fury in Bundelkhand, Kalli and Vijay had to deliver their girl on a boat.
For three consecutive years from 2012, Bundelkhand region in central India was hit by a crippling drought. This year, when the rain started, farmers and villagers finally hoped there would be some relief. But slowly that hope is now fading, with many areas now facing flood fury.
For two families whose villages are about a kilometer apart in Banda district in Uttar Pradesh, the last few days have been the most difficult time of their lives. Kalli and Vijay had to deliver their girl on a boat enroute to a local hospital from their flooded village.
Priyanka and Kaushal were luckier. At midnight on Sunday, they managed to find a boatman willing to risk the ride through flooded waters to the community health centre. He charged them Rs 150.
"It was just too difficult. We paid money. Then when we went to the hospital, there was no one there. Now that we are back, we have got nothing here too," says Kaushal. But they can take heart from the fact that their child is healthy.
Of the seven districts in Bundelkhand, four are now hit by floods and over one lakh people are affected. The government says over 500 boats are being used for rescue.
In Hamirpur district, many homes have collapsed; water has entered many villages and people are escaping to higher ground using boats. "The Betwa and Yamuna rivers are flowing above the danger mark and the situation will be same till tomorrow, might improve after, water has been released from dam due which level has increased," says Uday Veer Singh Yadav, District Magistrate of Hamirpur.
Farmers in Banda district, like Kailash Prakash, say the rain this year brought hope a little too soon. "We sowed our crop this year with lots of hope, but it seems even this time it will be a disaster," said a distraught Kailash.