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PATNA, India, Tuesday (AFP) Seated on a wooden bench in a train to Delhi after floodwaters swallowed her village in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, Shanti Devi weeps inconsolably for the holy tree and statuette of a goddess she had to leave behind.

With the Ganges river gulping down many villages in low-lying areas near the Bihar state capital Patna, hundreds have had to flee without their belongings.

"I could not take the statue of (Hindu) goddess Durga in the boat," said Devi, who lived in the Nakta Diara area that was swallowed Saturday.

As her husband has decided to migrate to the Indian capital New Delhi to earn a living, she has been agonising over who will look after her holy pipal tree and her goddess once the floodwaters recede.

"I am very worried how my family and I will survive in a new city without my mother (goddess) with me," she said, clutching her two kids close to her chest. At least a dozen small islands in Patna and adjoining Vaishali districts have been submerged by flash floods and a swollen Ganges since Saturday.

As the water began covering islands and low-lying areas, villagers had no choice but to flee.

On Saturday, Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi asked district officials to evacuate the affected villagers to safer places and distribute relief materials.

Officials immediately pressed rescue boats into action and swiftly moved to shift the villagers, refusing their requests to allow them time to pack their belongings and salvage building materials. Jamuna Rai could not save his newly-purchased cow, which he was banking on for his future needs.

A day after floods surrounded Nakta Diara village, his cow died of snakebite. "It was a thoroughbred cow and as she was to bear a calf next month I would have paid back the loan I had taken for purchasing her," Jamuna said. He too had no choice but to migrate to a bigger city like New Delhi.

The floods have meant an irreparable loss for other villagers as well.

At least 50 villages have been flooded in other parts of the state and officials warn the Ganges will continue to rise due to ongoing heavy rains. State relief department officials said some four million people and 500,000 animals have been affected in 2,894 villages.

So far, 115 people have been reported killed in floods statewide.

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