A motorcyclist passes through a flooded road in Assam’s Kamrup district
Highlight
- At present, 33.03 lakh people are affected in 28 districts.
- At least 10 people died due to flood-related causes on Friday
- Eight teams of NDRF from Itanagar and Bhubaneshwar have been deployed in Silchar.
Assam Floods: Official sources said that with the death of ten more people in Assam, the total death toll has gone up to 118. At present, 33.03 lakh people in 28 districts on Friday, while Silchar town in Cachar district remained submerged for the fifth consecutive day. According to the Assam State Management Disaster Authority (ASDMA) bulletin, a population of 45.34 lakh in 30 districts was affected by the floods on Thursday.
Though the Brahmaputra in Dhubri and the Kopili in Nagaon are still flowing above the danger mark, the rivers are receding. After 10 more deaths – two each from Barpeta, Dhubri, Karimganj and Udalguri districts and one each from Cachar and Morigaon, the toll rose to 118 since mid-May due to floods and landslides.
The state government announced that it has deployed additional resources to the severely affected districts, particularly Cachar and two other districts of the Barak Valley. Two drones have been deployed in Silchar for flood inundation mapping as well as for providing relief material to the affected people.
Eight teams of NDRF from Itanagar and Bhubaneshwar along with an Army team from Dimapur in Nagaland have been deployed in Silchar. Apart from this, 10 CRPF personnel and four SDRF personnel have been rushed to Cachar with boats to rescue the stranded people, an ASDMA official said.
After conducting an aerial survey of Silchar city on Thursday, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced that additional columns of Army would be sent to Silchar to rescue the stranded people.
The state government also launched helpline numbers 0361-2237219, 9401044617 and 1079 (toll free) for the affected people of Cachar district. The state government has airlifted 85.2 metric tonnes of relief material from Jorhat and Guwahati to Silchar.
The population of about three lakhs is facing acute shortage of food, clean drinking water and medicines as almost the entire city has been submerged in the flood waters. Food packets, drinking water bottles and other essential items are being dropped in the city by helicopters of the Indian Air Force and this will continue till the situation improves, an official said.
Three districts of Barak Valley – Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj – have been badly affected by the rising water. According to the ASDMA bulletin, the other major flood-affected districts of the state are Barpeta with 8,76,842 people affected, followed by Nagaon (5,08,475), Kamrup (4,01,512) and Dhubri (3,99,945).
Urban floods were reported in Cachar, Karimganj and Morigaon districts. Floods caused by incessant rains have affected 93 revenue circles and 3510 villages, while 2,65,788 people have taken shelter in 717 relief camps.
168 roads and 15 bridges have been damaged in the floods, while three embankments have been breached in Nagaon district. In the current second wave of floods, 91,658.49 hectares of crop area and 25,99,756 animals have been affected. Large-scale erosion is also reported from several districts.
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