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<p>The Koshi River, originating from the Tibetan Plateau in Nepal and China, has sustained life and livelihoods in northern Bihar for millennia. However, hydraulic interventions downstream and deforestation upstream, coupled with Himalayan glacier melt, have disrupted traditional flood adaptation practices. Over the past decades, these changes, along with persistent socioeconomic marginalisation, have intensified distress migration from the region. Over a million people are literally trapped—predominantly from historically marginalised communities—within the embankments of the Koshi River across 380 villages in India and 34 in Nepal. This study relies on 13&#xa0;months of ethnographic field work in a trapped village and relocation sites following a baseline survey (<i>n</i> = 600) among households across two trapped villages. Building on these rich insights, this study situates patterns of mobility and immobility within the broader socioecological transformations of the Koshi region. Findings reveal widespread involuntary immobility, particularly among Dalits and other socioeconomically backward communities, alongside an increase in precarious seasonal and circular migration. Gendered disparities are stark: women face heightened vulnerabilities due to constrained mobility and caregiving burdens. The study reveals that mobilities in the Koshi region are shaped less by environmental shocks alone and more by structural inequalities, caste hierarchies, and historical marginalisation. Findings suggest high in situ immobility in the Koshi River plains, challenging assumptions that climate stress universally triggers migration.</p>

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Climate mobilities in the transboundary Koshi River plains of Northern Bihar

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年3月3日

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  • Arif Nizam,
  • P. Sivakumar,
  • S. Irudaya Rajan

摘要

The Koshi River, originating from the Tibetan Plateau in Nepal and China, has sustained life and livelihoods in northern Bihar for millennia. However, hydraulic interventions downstream and deforestation upstream, coupled with Himalayan glacier melt, have disrupted traditional flood adaptation practices. Over the past decades, these changes, along with persistent socioeconomic marginalisation, have intensified distress migration from the region. Over a million people are literally trapped—predominantly from historically marginalised communities—within the embankments of the Koshi River across 380 villages in India and 34 in Nepal. This study relies on 13 months of ethnographic field work in a trapped village and relocation sites following a baseline survey (n = 600) among households across two trapped villages. Building on these rich insights, this study situates patterns of mobility and immobility within the broader socioecological transformations of the Koshi region. Findings reveal widespread involuntary immobility, particularly among Dalits and other socioeconomically backward communities, alongside an increase in precarious seasonal and circular migration. Gendered disparities are stark: women face heightened vulnerabilities due to constrained mobility and caregiving burdens. The study reveals that mobilities in the Koshi region are shaped less by environmental shocks alone and more by structural inequalities, caste hierarchies, and historical marginalisation. Findings suggest high in situ immobility in the Koshi River plains, challenging assumptions that climate stress universally triggers migration.