Question of Livelihood in the Light of Disaster: With Special Reference to Flood of Bahraich, India

Floods in India is a repetitive one due to natural reasons like excessive rain and man-made mistakes like encroachments of water bodies, heavy rain-falls and so on. The chapter is based on a field study of Bahraich, a district of eastern Uttar Pradesh, India. Interestingly, the district shares its boundary to neighboring country Nepal that influences the occurrence of floods in the region. The district is also prosperous in water resources such as the great Ghaghara river and many small and big ponds and lakes are in the district that becomes a cause of sorrow in the rainy seasons. The key concern of the chapter is to understand the challenges of livelihood of the rural communities which is annually threatened by devastative floods.