No respite for Assam, Bihar as floods worsen
RAIN CHAOS Rivers continue to overflow, floodwaters enter new areas in the two states
nGUWAHATI/PATNA: Assam and Bihar continued to face a grim flood situation as rivers continued to remain in spate and floodwater entered new areas across the two states, bulletins from the state disaster management authorities said on Monday.
The death toll in Assam has risen to 103 after another person died from drowning on Monday. In its bulletin, the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said the flood has hit over two million people in 22 of the state’s 33 districts. Goalpara continued to be the state’s worsthit district with close to 462,000 people being affected by the flood, the bulletin said. It added that over 45,000 people, a majority of them from Goalpara, have been displaced and taking shelter in relief camps across 17 districts.
According to a Central Water Commission (CWC) bulletin, a number of rivers continued to overflow in the state. The Brahmaputra was flowing above the danger mark at Nematighat, Tezpur, Goalpara and Dhubri districts while the Dhansiri, Jia Bharali, Kopili and Beki rivers were also flowing above red mark, it said.
The flood situation at the Kaziranga National Park has improved, with 80% of its area now being inundated as compared to 90% till last week, park authorities said. Of the 223 forest camps in the park, 62 are inundated. Over 130 animals, including 14 rhinos, have died in the flood, officials familiar with the matter said.
In Bihar, floodwaters spread to new areas in the 11 affected districts, affecting one million more population, the state disaster management department said. The department in its bulletin said a total of 2.4 million people have been hit by flood across 11 of 38 districts in Bihar, with Darbhanga being the worst-affected.
Seventeen teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and eight of the SDRF are involved in the rescue operations as part of which 167,000 people have been evacuated from the affected areas so far, the bulletin said.
The Patna Meteorological
Centre has warned of more rain in the coming days. “Monsoon trough has reached close to the foothills of the Himalayas. Another north-south trough from Bihar to north Odisha is lying 1.5km above mean sea level. Under these mechanisms, northern districts of Bihar including Supaul, Araria, Kishanganj and Madhepura are very likely to receive heavy rain in the following days,” SK Patel, duty officer at the centre said.