Bihar Has Battled Floods for Decades. Why Do the Same Rivers Keep Overflowing?

Bihar floods because fast, silt-heavy rivers drop out of Nepal's Himalayas onto the flat plains of north Bihar. When monsoon rain, river discharge, silted beds…

Ganga Crosses Its Own Historic Flood Mark at Patna

On 5 September 2026 the Ganga at Gandhi Ghat, Patna reached 50.53m, a centimetre above its previous highest flood level. The Gandak, Kosi, Burhi Gandak, Bagmati, Punpun…

Flash Floods Strike 19 Districts of North Bihar

Heavy August 2017 rain across Nepal and north Bihar sent the Gandak, Burhi Gandak, Bagmati, Kamla, Kosi and Mahananda over their banks together. District tallies recorde…

Kushaha Breach and the Great Kosi Flood

On 18 August 2008 the Kosi's eastern embankment breached near Kushaha, Nepal, forcing the river into a long-dry channel. The World Bank/GFDRR assessment found about 3.3…

Bagmati, Burhi Gandak and Kamla Balan Overwhelm 20 Districts

53 separate embankment breaches across the Bagmati, Burhi Gandak, Kamla Balan, Bhutahi Balan and Adhwara rivers killed 885 people and affected an estimated 21.3 million…

A Devastating Flood Shows the Limits of Embankment Control

Unprecedented monsoon rain, compounded by a landslide-dammed lake bursting on the Bhote Kosi in Nepal, killed 1,399 people and affected nearly 29 million across 30 distr…

Embankments Expand Rapidly Across North Bihar

Following the 1954 policy and the 1964 Gandak Barrage agreement, Bihar's embankment network grew roughly 22-fold, from about 160km in 1952 to around 3,465km by 1999.

Flood-Control Policy and the Kosi Agreement Era Begin

India and Nepal signed the Kosi Agreement on 25 April 1954, authorising the Kosi Barrage and a structural, embankment-led approach to flood control on the river long cal…