Chandravati Manjhi, 65, returned to her home in Bihubor village, Assam’s Sivasagar district, 15 days after a devastating flood on July 19. The village was buried under a mudslide caused by heavy rains that swept down from the neighboring hills of Nagaland. Manjhi’s return highlights the ongoing struggle of residents as they begin to assess the damage and recover from the disaster.
For victims, the immediate challenge is to rebuild what has been lost. For Chandravati, returning home did not mean returning to the life built over decades; it meant trying to find what remained of it. Livestock, agricultural equipment and stored food were swept away. Crops were destroyed and, for many families, so was their means of earning a living. “For a human, returning home is the ultimate goal after such a loss, but for them, it is nearly impossible. They are getting other help, but without a house, life cannot restart. By the time families began returning home nearly two weeks after the flood, the nature of the crisis had changed. Though rebuilding is under way and people are returning home, the fear of another flood, perhaps even more destructive, remains.
“I could identify my house only because there was a concrete structure nearby,” she said. So, we decided to build houses,” Singh said.
