Over 2 million trapped after Indian river changes course

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

MADHEPURA, India (AFP) — Indian emergency services rushed supplies to 2.5 million people marooned after heavy monsoon rains caused a river to shift its course, a minister said Wednesday.

Junior agriculture minister Akhilesh Prasad Singh said one million tonnes of rice and wheat would be doled out after the Kosi river breached its banks and flooded huge swathes of the eastern state of Bihar.

The military said it had deployed helicopters and soldiers to reach stranded people after monsoon downpours caused the Kosi to swell, burst its flood levees and flow through a channel it had previously abandoned.

"A couple of days ago just a handful of districts were affected and today there are 15 which are under water," Mukesh Kumar told an AFP correspondent in...