PURNIA, India: Some villagers began trying to return to their flooded homes in eastern India on Saturday as waters slowly receded, but officials warned the move was risky with a month of heavy rains still left.

Almost 900,000 people have been evacuated to higher ground since flood defence walls broke upstream in Nepal almost three weeks ago, shifting the flow of the Kosi river away from its normal course and east onto farmland. Large swathes of the impoverished state of Bihar were flooded. About 100,000 people remain marooned in village islands by the river, with most refusing to leave, while some evacuees are trying to head home.

“We have reached a stage where people in the thousands are still left, but they are now refusing to come out,” state disaster management official Pratyaya Amrit told AFP.

“People think the flood is over. In a lot of the camps people have started moving back. In the last two to three days, at least 10,000 to 15,000 have gone back.” But India’s monsoon season, when much of the country receives more than 90 percent of its rain, does not officially end till the close of September, and officials say the river could rise again.

About 1,100 square kilometres of villages and farms remain underwater, even though levels have decreased by a foot (30 centimetres) or more in parts.

Army officials running rescue operations this week said the receding water was making it harder to reach distant villages, where people have been without food or water for weeks.

“Beyond 15 to 20 kilometres it is hard for us rescue,” said one army official, asking not to be named. “We’re trying to get as far as possible.”

But with frequent stops to pull their boats over shallowly submerged roads and other obstacles, they can only get as far as nearby villages where people want to stay put, asking instead for supplies to be sent to them.

On a road in Bihar’s Purnia district, 350 kilometres from state capital Patna, rescued villagers unloaded from boats trudged towards the town and camps all week.