Thousands affected in Assam floods
The flood situation in Assam worsened on Sunday with at least 258,000 people across 16 districts bearing the brunt of heavy rainfall and 6,200 being forced to take shelter in relief camps, officials familiar with the matter said on Sunday. According to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), Lakhimpur was the worst-hit district with 105,257 people in the area being affected by flooding followed by Majuli where 57,256 have been hit by the floods. No human casualties have been reported in the flooding so far, but the rising water levels continue to pose a threat to the wildlife in the state. Almost 70% of the Dibru-saikhowa National Park has been flooded, forcing animals to flee to highlands, a forest department official said. The situation at the Kaziranga National Park (KNP) was also turning critical with around 50% of the area already under water, its director P Sivakumar said.
GUWAHATI: The flood situation in Assam worsened on Sunday with at least 258,000 people across 16 districts bearing the brunt of heavy rainfall and 6,200 being forced to take shelter in relief camps, officials familiar with the matter said.
According to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), Lakhimpur was the worst-hit district with 105,257 people in the area being affected by flooding followed by Majuli where 57,256 have been hit by the floods.
According to the daily flood situation report by the Central Water Commission, the Brahmaputra was flowing at “above normal to severe flood situations” in Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Sonitpur, Goalpara, Kamrup and Dhubri districts due to continuous rainfall. “Tributaries of Brahmaputra, namely Beki in Barpeta, Jia Bharali in Sonitpur, Dikhow in Sivasagar, Sankosh in Dhubri, Subansiri Lakhimpur, Gaurang in Kokrajhar, Puthimari in Kamrup are flowing in above normal to severe flood situations.”
While no human casualty has been reported in the flooding so far, the rising water levels continue to pose a threat to the wildlife in the state.
Almost 70% of the Dibru-saikhowa National Park has been flooded, forcing animals to flee to highlands, a forest department official told news agency PTI. “Bodies of three feral horses have been recovered so far. Two more have been rescued but their condition is critical,” the official added.
The overall flood situation in the Kaziranga National Park (KNP) was also turning critical with around 50% of the area already under water, its director P Sivakumar said. Animals have started crossing the National Highway 37 that runs through the Park in search of dry land and one hog deer was killed in the act on Saturday, he said.
State disaster management authority officials were hopeful that the condition would improve in the coming days.
“The water levels of major rivers are showing a receding trend and there’s no alert for more heavy rainfall in the next few days. Hopefully, the situation will improve rapidly soon. Thankfully, there have been no human deaths reported across the state thus far,” said Dhiraj Saud, state project coordinator, ASDMA.