A 150-metre breach in the embankment along the Ganga river in Bhagalpur district of Bihar brought a deluge affecting thousands of people and prompting the state government on Tuesday to declare the advent of floods for the first time this season.

Over 2,000 people have been evacuated so far.

The breach occurred near Ismailpur Bind Toli in Gopalpur block of Naugachhia sub-division in the district around 10am, directly affecting at least two panchayats in the area.

As heavy volumes of water spread quickly, people living in the villages in the panchayats fled to safer places with their cattle. Many could not even collect their belongings.

“Erosion affected the embankment after the water level of the Ganga decreased. The floodwaters have spread in Tintanga Karari and Kamlakund panchayats. We have sent two teams of experts from Patna to contain the breach. The situation is under control at present,” state water resources department (WRD) minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary said.

Senior administrative officials, including Bhagalpur district magistrate Nawal Kishor Choudhary and deputy inspector-general (DIG) Vivekanand, rushed to the affected area to oversee flood-fighting efforts.

Six teams of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have been pressed into rescue and relief operations. Two teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) having 75 jawans and eight motorboats from Patna have also reached there.

The evacuation process under way in Naugachhia of Bhagalpur on Tuesday. Picture by Sanjay Choudhary

“The breach was around 60 to 70 metres in the beginning but rapidly expanded to 150 metres. We have evacuated around 1,500 people from a village called Buddhuchak and 610 of them have opted to stay at the two relief camps arranged by us. The rest have moved to the places of their relatives in safer areas,” Bhagalpur DM Nawal Kishor Choudhary told The Telegraph.

Nawal added that medical facilities, fodder for cattle and other amenities have been arranged by the district administration and the engineers would start efforts to bridge the breach late in the evening. The areas around the flood-affected places are also being evacuated as a precautionary measure.

The Ganga was flowing above the danger level at Kahalgaon in Bhagalpur and at Gandhi Ghat and Hathidah in Patna district on Tuesday.