Monsoon death toll hits 164

GAUHATI, India — The death toll in monsoon flooding in South Asia has reached 164 as millions of people continue to face the brunt in three countries, officials said Saturday.

At least 90 people have died in Nepal and 62 in northeastern India’s Assam state over the past week. A dozen have been killed in flooding in Bangladesh.

Shiv Kumar, a government official in Assam, said 10 rare onehorned rhinos also have died in Kaziranga National Park since the Brahmaputra River burst its banks, flooding the reserve.

Some 4.8 million people spread over 3,700 villages across the state are still affected by the floods, though the frequency of rains has decreased, the Assam Disaster Response Authority said. The authority said 12 bodies of residents from different areas were recovered on Saturday.

More than 2.5 million people have been impacted by flooding in northeastern India’s Bihar state.

A young woman gave birth to her first child on a boat in floodwaters Friday while on her way to a hospital in Assam’s flooded Gagalmari village. The newborn girl and her 20yearold mother, Imrana Khatoon, were brought back to their home without getting to the hospital. Community health official Parag Jyoti Das, who visited the family, said there were no postdelivery health complications. However, the mother and the baby were moved by boat to a hospital in the nearby town of Jhargaon because of unhygienic conditions due to floodwaters, Das said. The health center in Khatoon’s village was flooded and closed.

“I would have felt happier if the baby’s father was here,” said Khatoon, whose husband works in a hotel in the southern state of Kerala.

More than 147,000 people have taken shelter in 755 governmentrun camps across Assam, officials said.

In Nepal, the Home Ministry said about 36,728 families were affected by the monsoon rains. The flooding and mudslides forced some 13,000 families to flee their homes. Helicopters were used to transport emergency food supplies, while other vehicles were used to move tents and supplies to the victims.

Rehman Asad / AFP / Getty Images Residents of the Gaibandha district of northern Bangladesh walk along a flooded street Thursday after heavy monsoon rain across the region.