The Kosi barrage in Birpur in Bihar which serves as the entry point for the river into India
Patna/New Delhi:
Over 70, 000 people have been evacuated in Bihar so far amid a flood alert in Kosi river following a landslide in neighbouring Nepal.
The state government, though, said that the "situation is under control" and "there is no need to panic".
Here are the 10 latest developments in this big story:
The landslide in Nepal triggered by heavy rains on Saturday has killed nine and left scores of people missing and has created a mud dam blocking the Sunkoshi river, which runs into Bihar as the Kosi river.
Controlled blasts by the Nepali army to clear the blockage were not carried out today. "In the absence of any significant rainfall in the upstream region, there appears to be no immediate danger to the poundage area," a statement from the Home ministry said today. The fear was that as Nepal tried to blast its way through the landslide to clear it, it would unleash a torrent of water across densely populated Bihar.
Nearly 36000 people have been evacuated from the Kosi region since yesterday.
Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi had conducted an aerial survey of the Kosi region on Sunday and said that people living outside the embankments were not facing the threat of floods.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed concern over the flood situation and directed that all possible assistance be made available.
An official release said Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth was "in constant and direct touch" with the state's chief secretary. While eight teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) with boats have been deployed in Bihar, seven more were being deployed and five had been kept on standby.
The state government has put its personnel on alert and instructed them to evacuate 1.5 lakh people in eight districts - Supaul, Saharsa, Madhepura, Khagaria, Bhagalpur, Araria, Purnia and Madhubani.
Army columns and personnel of the engineering task force have been mobilised to reach Supaul and Saharsa, while an AN-32 transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force would be used to carry personnel and equipment to Purnia.
The release also said that four MI-17 and two Chetak helicopters had been moved to Bihta near the state capital of Patna and two more MI-17 choppers were on standby. 15 diving teams of the Indian Navy are also in readiness at Vishakhapatnam. The central government is also sending a medical team and equipment. The release said that central government has also provided Bihar government 15 satellite phones.
A breach in Kosi embankment at Kushaha in Nepal in 2008 had caused one of the most devastating floods in Bihar.
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