Patna: As they board tiny boats, they cast one last look at what is left of what was lost. Pieces of houses, bits of lives, floating all around them.
They sit stoically, aware that six people have died in the same floods in Bihar's Darbhanga and Madhubani districts. Sixty thousand people here have been forced to move out.
An equal amount exposed to the same misery in Katihar in North Bihar. Here, the Mahanada river has breached an embankement, water has washed out 70 villages.
Engineers from the Bihar government inspect the breach in a boat. Their challenge is hefty. "We are facing huge problems in getting the boulders required for repairs. Also , not many labourers are available," says Rajeshwar Dayal , Chief Engineer.
The task made tougher by a sense of defeat in the villagers they're meant to help. "This is all just a drama , a wastage of government money, all this repair work will come to nought. Why build such weak embankements in the first place, " says villager Ranjit Kumar.
Bihar has felt the impact of the drought with full force. Now it faces the fury of floods. Maize and paddy crops stand several feet in water. Helpless, farmers look away.