Bihar, the poor and densely populated state in northern India, is ravaged by floods during the monsoon season every year. This year was no different, with nearly seven million people affected.
I traveled through some of the worst affected areas, where torrential monsoons and swollen rivers washed away homes and livelihoods.
I walked across a mud path in the blazing sun to reach the bridge. Hundreds of people had moved there with any possessions they had gathered in their hands. The farmers were still crying over the sacks of rotten grains.
The few livestock they managed to save stood in front of their makeshift tents.
There is a house completely destroyed, "they said, and they showed me the neighborhood. He added that they only got 2 kg of fluffed rice and 0.5 kg of sugar" as aid "from the government
It stood in front of the deserted village of Bhawanipur in the rough waters of the Gandak River.
It was one of seven villages that it swept on the night of July 23 when the adjacent bridge broke.
The villagers left their half-submerged homes and moved to the still-standing lower part of the bridge.
National Highway 57 in Darbanga, India, felt less like a road and more like a bridge. I was told that the road was surrounded by fields full of homes, all of which are now under water.
This highway flooded not a single river but rather many rivers - to name but a few, Sikrahana, Bagmati and Afdara. Agriculture remains the mainstay of Bihar, which is fertile and flat, drained by several rivers - a blessing but also a curse.
Saidpur Relief Camp in Samastipur can be easily seen from a distance.
Hundreds of families - or nearly 2,000 people - live there in plastic tents without toilets. The women fetch water from one of only three hand pumps, while the men walk their livestock around the camp. Littered garbage everywh
As I drove towards Singai Village, I saw the floating peaks of submerged temples, mosques, homes, fields and trees.
This is the first time in four decades that this part of Muzaffarpur district has witnessed such massive floods.
Those who managed to leave the village and moved to the district headquarters. But others were forced to move to a section of the bridge that survived the floods.
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