The present is grim for the survivors, and the future is uncertain. "Each arriving lot has a story more horrifying than the earlier lot," Salahuddin said.
The people who came in on the second week said they could see thieves and dacoits hiring boats to go into the villages to loot. "I saw my cattle being stolen and houses looted even as I was trying to find a way out of the water. I could do nothing but watch helplessly as the dacoits stole everything," 18-year-old Mohammed Tameem Akhtar said.
Those who arrived in the third week said they could see dead bodies and carcass of cattle floating all along the way. "The government says 12 people are dead in the whole state (Three days on, the official toll stands at 18) Do they know what they are talking about? I have a man here who came yesterday and said he had seen at least 40 to 50 bodies floating. What kind of an insensitive, stupid joke is this?" Javed Akhtar, who is assisting in the relief work, asked.
Image: A family takes shelter in a makeshift relief camp in Banmankhi, Bihar.
Photographs: Diptendu Dutta/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: 'Bihar is destined to die. Nobody counts us'
Give victims of Bihar's floods hope of a brighter future
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