Assam Is Already Suffering Due To Floods & Heavy Rain In Neighbouring States Could Worsen It
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued red alerts for five states in the East and North-East India in the coming days at a time when the region is already under a heavy flood, which has thrown normal life out of gear.
Things are not looking good for Assam, the worst-hit state where the IMD has issued a yellow alert for Saturday and red alert till Tuesday, and the agency predicts rainfall at most places with heavy to very rainfall and extremely heavy falls at isolated places. in the next few days. The same has been predicted for neighboring Meghalaya as well.
"The intense spell over NE India may accentuate existing flood conditions and also lead to landslides in some areas of NorthEast states and Sub-Himalayan WB and Sikkim," the IMD said.
This comes as millions across Assam continue to struggle due to the unusually long floods.
According to Disaster Management Authority Assam, till Friday, over 39 lakh people in 27 districts have been affected due to floods which are severe as compared to last years.
"We are running 303 relief camps and 445 relief distribution centres. Floods have claimed 71 lives while 26 died due to landslides" Assam Disaster Management Authority said.
An ASDMA official said that over the past more than a month, 76 deaths due to the floods were reported from Darrang, Sonitpur, Biswanath, Tinsukia, Lakhimpur, Bongaigaon, Kamrup, Golaghat, Sivasagar, Morigaon, Tinsukia, Dhubri, Nagaon, Nalbari, Barpeta, Dhemaji, Udalguri, Goalpara and Dibrugarh districts, while 26 others have been killed in separate landslides since May 22.
The officials said that six rivers - Dhansiri, Jia Bharali, Kopili, Beki, Barak, Kushiyara and the Brahmaputra, are flowing above the danger mark in many places in more than 12 districts.
The floodwater has submerged 3,014 villages, and 127,955 hectares of crop area in 28 districts.
Forest Department and ASDMA officials also said that at least 86 animals were killed, while 125 animals were rescued from Kaziranga national park, home to more than 2,200 one-horned Indian rhinoceros, which was inundated.
On Friday, a tiger that had moved out of the Kaziranga National Park to the nearby residential area on July 14 because of the floods was released into the wild, a day after it was tranquilised and captured.
Besides Kaziranga biodiversity hotspots of Golaghat and Nagaon districts, the Manas and R.G. Orang national parks, the Pabitora wildlife and the Tinsukia wildlife sanctuaries were also affected by the floods.
