MUZAFFARPUR, India (UCAN) -- Thousands are feared to have died and around 2 million to have been displaced in an eastern state where unexpected flash floods hit hundreds of villages, say Church people and officials.

Photo of an inundated Khagaria village in Muzaffarpur diocese, Bihar, eastern India.

The flooding that began Aug. 20 has claimed 55 lives according to Bihar state officials, but the death toll could be "tremendously large," Indian Missionary Society Father Aby Abraham told UCA News on Aug. 27. It is difficult to "verify the number of deaths," he said.

According to the priest, the situation is turning from bad to worse in the northern area of the state that Bettiah, Muzaffarpur and Purnea dioceses cover. Father Abraham works in a Muzaffarpur parish.

Floodwaters washed away hundreds of villagers, along with houses, cattle and crops, when the Kosi River breached an embankment in Nepal on Aug. 18 and changed its course, inundating downstream areas in India not used to flooding.

The river made a 3-kilometer-long breach in the 12-kilometer embankment India built in southern Nepal in the 1950s to control the turbulent Kosi, a tributary of the Ganges.

Father Abraham said Church people are "worried but focused on rescuing the trapped ones from death." The river currents are "so aggressive that even boat movement is hampered, so we all feel handicapped," he said.

According to Balram Singh Yadav, a member of the Bihar state legislature, walls of water "some 20 feet (6 meters) high rushed down, destroying everything" in an area 15 kilometers wide and 100 kilometers long, covering six districts.

Yadav represents Supaul district, which has its headquarters in Supaul town, 1,250 kilometers east of Delhi. This district in the territory of Muzaffarpur diocese borders Nepal and was the first to be engulfed by the rushing water.

The legislator told UCA News on Aug. 27 that "some 100,000 people, mainly children, women and the elderly," have died. He said the state wants to "hush up the massive death toll" after failing to carry out regular repair of the breached embankment.

According to Yadav, the state's water ministry was responsible for the upkeep of the embankment but its offices pocketed the annual 100-million-rupee (2.2 million dollars) fund for this purpose without doing the work. "And the result is there to see," he said.

Shia Ram Mandal, a senior state government official who came to his native Supaul district to ensure the safety of his flood-hit relatives, told UCA News that the death toll could be more than 100,000.

A family carries what little procession they could salvage in Khagaria village in Muzaffarpur diocese, Bihar, eastern India.

State authorities have told media that a total of 2.5 million people spread over 15 districts are affected. But Mandal insists the number must be much higher since the number of displaced alone is at least 2 million, with thousands trapped on rooftops and in trees. If these people are "not rescued immediately," the death toll will climb higher, he warned.

Hundreds of rescued people also do not have food and clean drinking water. Hunger, disease and intermittent rains are making rescue and relief tough, Mandal said.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, in a radio broadcast on Aug. 27, admitted the situation is "frightening" and could become worse if water levels rise further. "The Kosi has changed its course. It is not the normal flooding that people of north Bihar are well acquainted with," he said in Hindi, adding that it would be foolish to expect the water to recede early from its new course.

Father Alex Kurissummootil, another priest working in Muzaffarpur diocese, told UCA News that even during seasonal flooding, "the river turns ferocious and local people compare it to a tigress." But the current situation is "abnormal," since this flooding has resulted from a breach in the embankment, not because of the regular monsoons.

"So the tigress is not merely ferocious but has rather turned into a man-eater," he remarked.

END