Half a million stranded by Indian floods

INDIA battled yesterday to reach at least half a million people stranded by floods without food or drinking water, as the military poured fresh troops into the country’s devastated north.

Two weeks after the monsoon-swollen Kosi river from Nepal breached flood defences and changed course to cut across the Indian state of Bihar, emergency workers were still struggling with the scale of the disaster.

Tens of thousands of survivors have packed overcrowded relief camps, where tensions are growing over inadequate emergency supplies. More than half a million people have been evacuated from the disaster zone, with at least another 500,000 still without food or water, said disaster management officials. The army said it was sending thousands more troops to the state, which is one of India’s poorest areas.