The Environmental Roots of Backwardness in Bihar and Mithila – Part II: Drought

Unlike floods which are often sudden and traumatic events, droughts, at least in the beginning, are much more subtle and for this reason, more insidious. ey do not destroy man’s physical inventory of things but often result in starvation. e irony of the situation in Bihar is that these two destructive forces – floods and droughts – can be visualized as adjacent links in the Bihari chain of life. Floods can and often are immediately followed by droughts, and the cycle has been repeated again and again.1 Within the climatic context of Bihar, it is difficult to even contemplate the possibility of drought following on the heels of a flood.