InDepth | Nepal's Floodwater Is Flowing Into UP, Bihar: The Health Risks Are Just Beginning

The flash floods in Nepal on August 26 have left a trail of challenges across the border in the Indian plains, with eastern Uttar Pradesh and north Bihar facing a combination of flood preparedness, search-and-recovery operations and public-health hurdles. The Narayani River in Nepal, known as the Gandak River after it enters India, has become the principal conduit of the cross-border impact. Along the stretches of the river in Kushinagar and Maharajganj in Uttar Pradesh, villagers have reported seeing household goods, timber, debris, and more disturbingly, human and animal remains being carried downstream. So far, 18 bodies have been recovered from the Gandak River—14 in Kushinagar and four in Maharajganj.

In Maharajganj, authorities have worked with their Nepali counterparts to process and identify the four victims using post-mortem examination and DNA sampling, and subsequently handed the bodies over to Nepali authorities, demonstrating how rapid cross-border coordination can help families trace the victims of a disaster who have crossed national boundaries. It also highlights the need for faster real-time sharing of river-level and flash-flood information so that vulnerable communities downstream can receive warnings before the floodwaters arrive.

For communities living along the river, the disaster has transformed a familiar waterway into a reminder of the destruction upstream. The immediate concern is not that eastern Uttar Pradesh or north Bihar is already facing catastrophic floods—officials say water levels remain manageable in the affected areas. The concern, however, is what will happen if another spell of heavy rain in Nepal coincides with increased discharge into the Gandak and additional monsoon rainfall across the Indian plains.

The second and potentially an ominous concern is health: how to safely recover unidentified bodies and animal carcasses, prevent contamination and reassure communities about the safety of drinking water and fish population.

In Kushinagar, the Narayani River has become the focus of an ongoing search-and-recovery operation. The recovered bodies include men and women and, so far, authorities have been unable to establish their identities in several cases. Six bodies have been kept in deep freezers at the mortuary in Kushinagar’s medical college, while others have been shifted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Gorakhpur.

Officials are preserving clothes and other belongings found with the bodies because these could help establish their identities. DNA samples are also being collected as part of the identification process. The district administration is sharing information about the recovered bodies with Nepal through the Union Ministry of External Affairs. Vandita Srivastava, Kushinagar’s chief development officer, says the administration is coordinating the recovery and identification process and working through appropriate channels to provide information to Nepal.

The operation is not simply about recovering bodies. Officials are also concerned that remains of people or animals could become trapped along the riverbank, in vegetation or in debris and later decompose. That makes systematic searches important even after the immediate flow of floodwater subsides.

Keeping Watch

In neighbouring Maharajganj, the administration has adopted a precautionary approach as water levels in rivers originating in Nepal are fluctuating. District Magistrate Gaurav Singh Sogarwal says the administration is monitoring the Narayani and the situation in Nepal continuously. At present, the river’s water level is within the normal range in the district, despite substantial discharge from the Valmikinagar barrage, he says.

At one point, about 150,000 cusecs of water was reported to have been released from the barrage, while another assessment puts the discharge at around 125,000 cusecs. Officials have continued to monitor the changing flow rather than treating any single discharge figure as a permanent indicator of flood risk. Sogarwal says that as a precautionary measure, repair work on the Chhitauni embankment along the Narayani has been completed. “The water level in the Narayani is normal and the situation in the district remains under control,” says Sogarwal. He adds that the administrative and revenue officials have been instructed to maintain continuous surveillance of vulnerable areas. Eight revenue villages, including Sohagibarwa, are being kept under particular watch.

Geography of Risk

Since the Narayani becomes the Gandak after entering India and eventually flows through Bihar, it makes the river a natural pathway through which an extreme rainfall event in Nepal can affect downstream communities. That does not mean every rise in Nepal’s rivers will produce a major flood in India. Flood risk depends on several factors, including the volume and timing of upstream discharge, rainfall in the Indian catchment, river capacity, embankment conditions and local drainage. For now, officials in the affected districts say there is no indication of a major flood in Kushinagar.

The Narayani travels roughly 100 km through Kushinagar district. Its water level has risen only moderately following the Nepal disaster, according to local assessments, and has not crossed the level associated with a severe flood emergency. Though some riverbank erosion has been reported in agricultural areas, officials describe this as broadly consistent with the seasonal erosion that occurs along the river.

A Health Warning

The greater concern is preparedness for a possible change in the flood situation. If the discharge from Nepal increases sharply while heavy rain continues in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the pressure on the river system could rise quickly. The cross-border impact is also being felt downstream in Bihar, where the Gandak and other watercourses have carried fish, debris and organic material following the flooding in Nepal.

The Directorate of Fisheries, Bihar, has advised people to avoid eating fish that have been swept in by floodwaters or caught in areas affected by the recent flooding until their safety is established. The precaution follows concerns that floodwaters may carry sewage, dead animals, household waste, mud and other biological material into rivers, potentially exposing fish to contamination. Reports of animal remains and other organic debris along stretches of the Gandak have heightened concern among communities dependent on the river for food and livelihood.

On social media and among local communities, there have been discussions about the possibility of infections being transmitted through fish from the river. Officials, however, have not established that eating fish from the Gandak has caused an outbreak of infectious diseases. Here, the distinction is important. At present, the concern is primarily precautionary rather than evidence of an epidemic.

Doctors and public-health officials are concerned about what may happen after the floodwaters recede. Flood disasters can contaminate drinking water sources with sewage, animal waste and other biological material. Such contamination can increase the risk of diarrhoeal diseases and other waterborne infections. Stagnant water can also become breeding grounds for mosquitoes, increasing the risk of vector-borne diseases. Dead animals and human present another challenge if they become trapped in inaccessible areas and are not detected and disposed of safely. Vibha Dutta, director of AIIMS Gorakhpur, says that the bodies brought from Kushinagar were being kept safely in deep-freezer facilities. The administration is also maintaining drinking water supply, medicines, chlorine tablets, oral rehydration salts and other essential material in vulnerable areas.

Beyond the Flood Warning

The disaster has also exposed a broader weakness in the way Himalayan disasters are managed across international borders. Rainfall and flash floods do not stop at national boundaries. A major incident in Nepal can rapidly change river conditions in India, sometimes leaving downstream authorities with limited time to respond. For eastern Uttar Pradesh and north Bihar, this makes real-time information-sharing particularly important. District administrations need timely information about rainfall, reservoir and barrage releases, river levels and sudden changes in upstream flows. Better coordination between Indian and Nepali authorities could warn communities living downstream ahead of time.

Long-term measures could include expanding real-time river-data sharing, improved flood forecasting, satellite-based monitoring, better mapping of vulnerable settlements and stronger cross-border disaster management mechanisms. The floods have also underlined the need to integrate public health into flood planning. Emergency response cannot end when water levels fall.

In Nepal, local, provincial and federal governments are coordinating efforts to manage the floods, but the disaster has created wider ecological, economic, social, agricultural and regional challenges, says Krishna Prasad Gyawali, an academic serving at the Saptagandaki Multiple Campus in Nepal.

For now, eastern Uttar Pradesh and north Bihar remain in a state of heightened vigilance rather than widespread emergency. In Maharajganj, the administration says the Narayani remains within manageable levels and vulnerable villages are being monitored. In Kushinagar, there is no immediate indication of a major flood, although riverbank erosion and the continued arrival of debris and remains have complicated the situation.

The situation is grim in downstream Bihar, where the Gandak passes through West Champaran, Gopalganj and other vulnerable areas. The Bihar government is also monitoring several other major rivers, including the Ganga and the Kosi. A simultaneous rise in multiple river systems could increase the risk of prolonged flooding in low-lying areas.

For the local administration, the immediate priorities are clear: to monitor the river continuously, remain ready for a sudden increase in discharge and communicate clearly with communities. The water levels may be under control today. But the events in Nepal have demonstrated how quickly conditions in the Himalayas can become a downstream problem for the plains.

(With inputs from Ajeet Singh, a Gorakhpur-based freelance journalist)

Mahendra Kumar Singh is Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, DDU Gorakhpur University