Sunita Somvanshi
The Ganga Is at Its Highest Level Ever in Patna. Here Is What Is Happening in Bihar.
The river that runs through the heart of Bihar has crossed a mark it has never officially crossed before. As of Saturday morning, the Ganga at Gandhi Ghat in Patna reached 50.53 metres — one centimetre above the highest flood level ever recorded at that point.
According to the Bihar Water Resources Department bulletin, the water rose 10 centimetres in just four hours. That is not just a rising river. It is a river actively pushing into homes, fields, and streets.
This is not just a Patna story.
The flooding in Bihar is being fed from outside the state. Heavy rainfall in neighbouring Jharkhand and upstream in Nepal has driven enormous volumes of water into multiple river systems at once. The Ganga is not alone — the Gandak, Kosi, Burhi Gandak, Punpun, and Ghaghra rivers have all crossed their danger marks at various monitoring points.
The scale of the upstream releases tells you how much water was already coming before it reached Patna. Friday’s reports recorded roughly 1.26 lakh cusecs released from the Gandak Barrage at Valmikinagar, 1.91 lakh cusecs at the Kosi’s Birpur Barrage, and 5.23 lakh cusecs from the Sone river at the Indrapuri Barrage. That volume of water has to go somewhere, and it is going downstream into Bihar.
Who is affected?
Around 10.26 lakh people — that is over one million — are currently dealing with flooding across 11 districts in Bihar. The hardest-hit are Bhojpur, with approximately 2.84 lakh people affected across four blocks, and Patna, with about 2.32 lakh people across nine blocks. Vaishali has nearly 85,000 people affected, Saran has close to 20,000, and other districts including Buxar, Begusarai, Samastipur, Munger, Katihar, Bhagalpur, and Araria are also dealing with flooding.
Low-lying areas along the Ganga in Patna face the sharpest immediate risks. People there are losing access to homes, livestock, and farmland. Many have moved onto raised roads and embankments while waiting for the water to recede.
The rescue operation running right now:
The state has deployed 858 boats across the affected districts. Alongside the boats, 34 specialised rescue teams are operating — 27 from the State Disaster Response Force and seven from the National Disaster Response Force. Relief camps, community kitchens, and ration distribution are running in affected areas.
Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary flew over the affected zones on Friday and instructed officials to keep continuous watch over embankments from Buxar all the way to Bhagalpur. The state Disaster Management Department has warned people in low-lying areas and near riverbanks to avoid unnecessary movement, especially near ghats.
The situation in Varanasi, downstream in Uttar Pradesh, has also drawn attention at the national level. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was briefed on the Ganga’s condition there, where the river has crossed its warning level.
Summary: The Ganga at Gandhi Ghat in Patna has exceeded its highest recorded flood mark by one centimetre, rising 10 cm in four hours on Saturday morning. Around 10.26 lakh people are affected across 11 Bihar districts. The state has deployed 858 boats and 34 rescue teams to assist those displaced by flooding fed in large part by heavy rainfall in Nepal and Jharkhand.
