In Bihar’s Jawaniya, a river runs where a village once was

JAWANIYA (BHOJPUR): Rivers give in abundance. But when swollen with fury, they plunder without mercy. This July, the primeval Ganga took everything that belonged to this riverine village in Bhojpur district of Bihar. It became a land grabber, a livelihood snatcher, a home wrecker and, as one gathers after visiting the habitation, a destroyer of dreams. Parts of Jawaniya now look like a lunatic’s playground — houses carved into pieces like cakes, dead bamboo forests and roads that abruptly end before a rivercreated precipice. About 200 homes, two water tanks, two schools and three temples were swallowed in the swirling waters. Over 300 bighas (1 bigha equals to 0.6 acres) of fecund land were gnawed away. Ward No. 5, and much of Ward No. 4, don’t exist anymore. Substantial parts of the v