The inaugural breach was on the western embankment in Nepal in 1963 near the village Dalwa. Binodanand Jha of the Congress Party was the chief minister and the responsibility of the breach was passed on to rats and foxes that dig holes in the body of the embankments through which water seeps and the embankment fails. The other reason for the failure was that because of the bad road conditions, the boulders could not be reached to the site.
In this connection, a meeting of the Irrigation Minister of Bihar, Dip Narayan Singh, the Panchayat Minister of Nepal, Kharag Bahadur Singh and the Irrigation Minister of Nepal, Dr Nageshwar Prasad Singh was held at the Kosi Project headquarters at Birpur on 22 August, 1963. The Nepalese side offered to extend all cooperation in undertaking any longterm programme to tame the Kosi. They also indicated that should a need arise for rehabilitation of the people in a similar situation, then its responsibility should be taken by the Government of India.
Then came the breach of 1968 at five places in Jamalpur (Darbhanga). This was caused due to the highest flow of 913,000 cusecs ever recorded in the river but an enquiry held by the Chief Engineer ' Floods of CWC, P N Kumra revealed that the failure was once again caused by rats and foxes. The state was under the President's Rule then.
The residents of eight villages in the Basantpur block of Supaul district had refused to be relocated outside the Kosi embankment and demanded instead a ring bundh for them and the eastern Kosi embankment formed a part of this ring. The Bhatania Approach Bundh that was constructed in 1968-69, collapsed between 10 and 19 kilometres below Bhimnagar in 1971 and many villages were washed away but eastern embankment had not breached. The Approach Bundh was constructed at a cost of Rs.3.17 lakhs but the repair cost of the same was to the tune of Rs.2.87 crores. The state was under the chief ministership of Bhola Paswan Shastri of Sanyukt Vidhayak...