2008 Bihar flood India's history of suffering more flood deaths than any other country except Bangladesh, and has earned the Kosi the epithet "The Sorrow of Bihar". Flooding occurred throughout the Kosi River valley in northern Bihar, in the districts of Supaul, Araria, Saharsa, Madhepura, Bhagalpur, Khagaria and Purnea. The flood killed 250 people and forced nearly 3 million people from their homes in Bihar. More than 300,000 houses were destroyed and at least 340,000 hectares (840,000 acres) of crops were damaged. Villagers in Bihar ate raw rice and flour mixed with polluted water. Hunger and disease were widespread. The Supaul district was
Provinces of Madagascar The new constitution of 1992 stated that the country should be divided into decentralised territorial entities, without going into detail. By law of 1994, three entity levels were defined: regions, departments and communes. The provinces were not mentioned in the law. After former president Didier Ratsiraka was re-elected in 1997, he 1998 introduced a revised constitution in which the still existing provinces were transformed to "autonomous provinces". Before that, no constitution had stated any details about the subdivisions of the country, leaving it to be ruled by law. The autonomous provinces were created in 2000. The official motivation was to