India: When floods come, survival is a roll of the dice

Last year, as monsoon rains pushed the Brahmaputra River over its banks in India's northeastern state of Assam, Amir Hussen knew one thing — he will need to rebuild his life. Again.

"I have lost my house 17 times to riverbank erosion," said Hussen, 47, a resident of Kharballi village in Assam's Barpeta district. "Wherever there are floods, there is erosion… When we try to find our footing, due to floods, our house gets washed away."

In villages like Kharballi, built along shifting riverbanks, floods routinely erase homes, farmland and livelihoods. Families move repeatedly, often rebuilding on borrowed land or narrow strips of earth left behind by the river.

For them, a flood means losing their homes and livestock but also documents and land records. This is especially risk for Muslim families in Assam. The state has been at the center of India's citizenship crackdown, where recent policies and verification drives have placed Muslims under closer scrutiny. Lost papers could mean legal troubles and even loss of citizenship.

"When people lose their homes and migrate to cities like Guwahati for work, cases are filed against them," Hussen said. His maternal uncle, despite having documents dating back to 1913, was declared a "D-voter" — a doubtful voter — and forced into a legal battle to prove he was legally an Indian.

"He worked as a daily wage laborer to fight his own case," Hussen added. "Eventually the court declared him an Indian citizen."

Others were not as fortunate. Hussen recounts a story of his neighbor who spent two years in Assam's Matia detention camp, India's largest detention center of illegal migrants, before a court ordered his release.

"Whatever property the family had was sold," Hussen said. "The entire ordeal destroyed the family."

Water brings life and death The problem is not limited to Assam. Across India, climate change is intensifying floods, cyclones, and droughts. But their impact is not evenly distributed. Religious minorities living in floodplains, coastal belts, and erosion-prone islands are among the first to lose homes and the last to receive help. The also tend to be poorer and marginalized by politicians.

Temporary relief

Far away in Bihar, in its flood-prone Supaul district bordering Nepal, locals tell the same story.

Local teacher Abdul Rauf, 40, has watched the Kosi River, often called the "Sorrow of Bihar," submerge fields and homes year after year.

He estimates that "80% of the population is affected by floods."

"The poor and middle class are affected the most. The upper class is affected much less," he said. "If people had resources, why would they live in the floodplain?"

Rauf acknowledged that relief does arrive, but warned it tends to be temporary.

"They give polythene sheets, dry food, some compensation," he said. "But people return after one or two months and meet the same fate next year. They have no option."

In neighboring Araria district, Aftab Alam, 23, says villages turn into islands every monsoon.

"Leaders say 'jal hi jeevan hai' [water is life]," he said. "But for us, it is death."

Waiting out the flood on a highway

In one recent assessment, about 82% of families in north Bihar were temporarily displaced by the 2024 floods, with many selling or mortgaging their jewelry, livestock and land to survive. About 91% of affected families cut back on food during these floods, while 75% borrowed food from relatives and neighbors.

This is nothing new. Alam recalled the catastrophic floods of 2017, when embankments collapsed and entire settlements vanished overnight. "The flood level was around one meter," he said. "A family was crossing the embankment when it collapsed. Three people died."

His family spent the night on a highway, the only elevated ground they could find.

"Mud houses were washed away. Grain silos were destroyed," he said.

Alam said that state compensation was nowhere near to the damages caused, and that the money was distributed unevenly.

"Those who are rich and privileged manage to take it. They don't even live here," he said.

'Nobody cares what happens to us'

The village of Kharballi once sat safely inland. Today, much of it has disappeared into the Beki River, a tributary of the Brahmaputra. There are almost 300 families living here, and nearly all of them have been displaced multiple times.

"Earlier, floods used to come during July or August," Hussen said. "Now the pattern is changing. Sometimes floods come two months earlier or two months later. Sometimes there is torrential rain. Sometimes there is drought. It's as if the air is changing."

"But it is us the poorest who are hit the most, first by nature and then by officials," Hussen added.

"The officials come. They measure the land. They make lists," Hussen said. "But the lists remain lists. We haven't received a single penny."

The reason for that, according to Hussen, is simple.

"We belong to the minority community. Nobody cares what happens to us."

Misery compounding over decades

The consequences do not end when the water recedes.

"Climate change is ultimately about who has the means to absorb loss," said Vimlendu Jha, a leading environmentalist and climate activist from India. "The poorest depend directly on land, water and weather for survival. When climate shocks hit, their income is the first to collapse."

For families like Hussen's, each flood compounds earlier losses, dialing up the pressure year after year. What begins as the loss of land and documents affects every aspect of life — food, schooling and the ability to plan for anything beyond the next monsoon.

Hussen remembers sitting for his high school matriculation exam three decades ago, after not having anything to eat for days.

"There was no food at home. We were living in a makeshift shelter on someone else's land," he said. "We had lost all our documents."

His children faced the same fate. "My daughter passed Class 10 with the first division," he said. "She is good in studies, but still, I could not afford her education."

Floodplains fertile but dangerous

In many parts of Assam and Bihar, floodplains are predominantly inhabited by Muslims, Dalits, and other marginalized groups.

"These are active floodplains," said Ishfaqul Haque, a remote-sensing scientist with BhoomiCAM, which uses satellite data to track rainfall, soil moisture and river behavior across eastern India.

"They are the most fertile, so people dependent on agriculture settle here. But when floods come, those without resources have the least capacity to recover."

Wealthier families, he said, are more likely to move, rebuild or absorb losses. The poor remain exposed.

"So it is a double whammy for the marginalized."

Climate activist Jha agrees that the impact is unequal.

"Loss of income leads to distress migration, and repeated displacement pushes families into deeper insecurity. Governments respond after disasters, but long-term resilience planning is still missing," he said.

The reporting for the story has been supported by a grant from the HRRF Journalism Grant Program.

Edited by: Darko Janjevic