Badaun, Uttar Pradesh: The Ganges River is in a dangerous spate in Badaun district, causing widespread devastation. In Kadmanagla village, the situation has become so dire that an entire government school building was swallowed by the river's current in just 5 minutes, with only a few walls remaining. This incident has created an atmosphere of fear in the village, and approximately a thousand bighas of standing crops have been submerged.

This destruction is a result of the Ganges suddenly changing its course. Villagers have moved to safer locations, but their homes and fields are waterlogged. Locals report that the river is rapidly eroding the village land. This is not a new phenomenon; over the past 60 years, the village has been submerged and relocated three times. Each time, people would rebuild their homes in fields further away from the river, but the situation has changed. There are no longer enough fields for all the village families to resettle, pushing the very existence of the village to the brink. Most residents have abandoned their homes.

Kadmanagla village, located about 40 km from Badaun district headquarters, along with nearby villages like Raipura, Damnagla, and Jata, are all grappling with floods and erosion. The paved roads leading to these villages are gone, replaced by muddy, potholed tracks submerged under 1 to 2 feet of water. In Kadmanagla, Damnagla, and Raipura, there are about 100 homes, none of which are two-storied. Most residents haven't even put roofs on their houses, living in constant fear that the Ganges' floods could sweep away their homes at any moment.

Villager Ram Singh recounted that in 1965, their village, Kheda Pukhta, was submerged. They then settled in Kadmanagla, but that too was affected by erosion 10 years later. For the third time, they settled in their fields, where they have lived for 20 years, but now the river has changed its course again. Ninety-year-old Kripal Singh Yadav states that government officials visit, observe, and leave, with no permanent solutions implemented. Villagers do not want their children to endure this hardship and wish for them to find work elsewhere. The Ganges river is eroding 15 to 25 meters of land daily, leading villagers to hope for a dam to protect their land.