Fresh floods warning in India

Authorities already battling a massive deluge in eastern India have said more floods are on the way.

Water levels have receded slightly in some parts of Bihar state, which is facing its worst flooding in 50 years, but officials told villagers not to return home from temporary shelters yet.

The floods have forced more than three million people from their homes, destroyed 250,000 acres of farmland and killed at least 90 people.

But reports suggest the death toll may be much higher after the Kosi river, which originates in Nepal, burst a dam last month and unleashed huge amounts of water downstream in Bihar.

Millions are now living on embankments, roads and in overcrowded camps in filthy conditions.

Aid agencies said this makes them extremely vulnerable to infections and water-borne diseases in the absence of clean drinking water.

But many people are trying to return to salvage what was left of their homes, while others resisted evacuation efforts in the first place as they were afraid their homes would be looted.

Officials sent out radio appeals asking marooned villagers to evacuate and those in camps to stay put.

Pratyay Amrit, a senior disaster management official in Bihar, said: "The news of water receding should not be taken seriously at all. We are still afraid there could be fresh flooding, so going back to the villages is not a good idea."

Planes are continuing to drop packaged drinking water, bread and tarpaulin sheets for marooned villagers who waved from rooftops to attract attention.

Nitish Mishra, Bihar's disaster management minister, said 50,000-75,000 marooned people were resisting evacuation.

"It is not at all safe for those living in the villages and those planning to go back" he said.

Angry villagers in one relief camp chased away a local politician, complaining that they were being served one bowl of gruel a day.

"The children are hungry. We want more food," one woman shouted.

Bihar, which is home to 90 million people, is one of India's poorest states and nearly 56 per cent of its young children are malnourished, far higher than the 43 per cent national average, Unicef officials said.

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