“The swollen Kosi – an erroneous human approach”

Whereas River Damodar (once called as the ‘sorrow of Bihar and West Bengal’) has been tamed under the DVC Project by following the principles and approaches of TVA on river water management, the Kosi River has again dubiously gained the distinction of being called the ‘river of sorrow’. Its flood havocs have killed many hundreds, rendering more than three million homeless and completely uprooting the rural economy.
Fluvio-geomorphologically, Kosi is a part of the Ganges riverine system which comes out from the Himalayas on a steep gradient course. One of the reasons behind its frequent flooding being a break in the river gradient on entering the Plains of Northern Bihar, multiplied by heavy silt load and incessant rain followed by peak discharge in the basin area (particularly in the Himalayan catchments). The aspect of deforestation, filling of the natural and man-made waterholes that were existing in the form of lakes, ponds and marshy lands etc., large scale settlement in the flood plains can also not be ignored.
However, a lack of political will on part of the Central and State government is equally to be blamed for the same. Though in 1950s, the then Prime Minister Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru had directed the Central Water Commission for a long term solution to tame the river, the government has since then settled on interim and temporary arrangements on a barrage at Hanuman Nagar, Birpur (Nepal) and construction of embankments. It is an open fact that these measures have been grossly erroneous as Kosi:

• is a highly meandering river and has drifted more than 150 kms. in past 120 years. In other words, it has a highly unstable channel / course.
• carries heavy silt load, the source being the fragile sedimentary and crystalline rocks of the Himalayas.
  The silt is infertile unlike the alluvial deposits, and therefore, has devastating effects on the agrarian economy of the state.

It seems that the natural tendency of Kosi do not approve of the steady-water equilibrium engineering of those who are at the planning and execution level in managing this furious river.