Deadly Indian floods force 1.3M from homes
Torrential monsoon rains triggered floods that swamped villages in eastern India and forced more than a million people to leave their homes for higher ground, officials said Friday.
The death toll from flood-related accidents in worst-hit Assam rose to 31 with five more deaths reported overnight from the northeastern state, regional Agriculture Minister Nilamoni Sen Deka said.
An estimated 1.3 million people have been displaced from their homes because of the flooding, Deka said in Guwahati, Assam’s largest city.
“We have opened makeshift relief camps for the displaced,” he said, as 21 of Assam’s 27 districts faced floods that began last weekend when annual monsoon rains lashed the tea and oil-rich state bordering Bangladesh.
In the adjoining northeastern Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, pounding rains brought flash floods, local officials said.
There were no casualties reported from Arunachal Pradesh, which borders China, and Manipur, which is adjacent to Myanmar.
“The situation is very critical as floods have destroyed property and crops,” Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Nabam Tuki said from the capital, Itanagar.
In Manipur, state disaster management official A. Singh said major rivers were “flowing menacingly” above danger marks. “We are taking all precautionary measures to ensure safety of the locals.”
Authorities were also keeping a close watch on swollen rivers in rain-lashed West Bengal state in eastern India.
“Heavy rains in northern districts of the state have raised concerns of flooding in many areas as most rivers are in spate,” Gautam Dev, a regional minister, said in state capital Kolkata.
In neighbouring Bihar state, people fled their homes in two districts as the Kosi river threatened to overflow its banks, officials said.
“Floodwaters have already entered dozens of villages following incessant rains in catchment areas,” one official said.