PATNA, India (Reuters) - The Indian army and navy stepped up efforts on Monday to rescue hundreds of thousands of people marooned by floods and facing severe shortages of food in the east of the country.
Some villagers have been living on rooftops for days, whileothers are eating plants and leaves after exhausting foodstocks. Aid agencies said the government of the impoverishedstate of Bihar should have done more to anticipate the disasterand plan relief operations in a region hit by monsoon floodingevery year.
"Lessons from the past disasters should be kept in mindwhile planning response," ActionAid said in a statement. "Along-term comprehensive response is necessary to deal withrelief, recovery and disaster preparedness."
Three million people have been displaced from their homesand at least 90 killed by floods, officials say, after the Kosiriver burst a dam in Nepal, swamping hundreds of villages inBihar and destroying 100,000 ha (250,000 acres) of farmlands.
Hundreds of boats are being used to evacuate people butmore are needed, while heavy rains over the past few days havehampered rescue and relief operations, officials said.
"Such is the extent of devastation that the forces deployedare proving too small," Pratyay Amrit, a senior state disastermanagement official, said on Monday.
The army, which had already deployed five columns of around120 men, sent in another 14, officials said on Monday, whilethree naval companies were also asked to help.
The situation on the ground is getting desperate.
"We don't have any more food grain stocks left, and me andmy family are all chewing plants and leaves to stay alive,"Mohan Sharma said by telephone from Supaul district.
Television pictures showed people fighting to get places inboats, as soldiers in life jackets tried to restore order.
Over 467,000 people have been evacuated so far, but thereare thousands still marooned. Activists and local media say thedeath toll could be many times higher than official estimates.
Some experts have blamed the floods on heavier monsoonrains caused by global warming, while others say authoritieshave failed to take preventive measures and improveinfrastructure.
(Writing by Bappa Majumdar; Editing by Simon Denyer)
