flood havoc in Assam

Flood havoc in Assam

 

Torrential rains for one week have led to flash floods in Assam's capital in what may be easily described as the worst floods the state has witnessed in eight years. Almost 23 of its 27 districts are under water. Nearly four lakh people in 2,000 villages are said to be affected and 40,000 hectares of crop land is believed to be destroyed.

The Brahmaputra and its tributaries breached their embankments at several places leading to the worst floods the state has witnessed in eight years.

Rescue operations are being carried out by the Indian Army, the Indian Air Force, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the state government, and yet, nothing substantial has been achieved so far.

Angry villagers are, meanwhile, desperately moving to higher grounds and struggling to survive in makeshift camps. Around 173 temporary shelters have been set up across the state.

A flood affected villager of Udiana, Mohammed Sabir Ali, said, "I am stuck, how will I survive? I've been forced to move to the railway tracks with my children."

Sahida Begum, another villager of Udiana, said, "I've seen these floods since 2001. There is no water, no food, for me and my kids."

It is a cycle of helplessness and damage that seems to have become a yearly ritual. The battle is difficult for the rescue workers too, as they try their best to pull out the marooned villagers.

P Horo, Assistant Commandant, NDRF, said, "The villagers are stuck inside. The water level is rising. If rescue doesn't reach on time, it will be dangerous."

Almost all flood protection measures taken so far by the government to pre-empt disaster have proven ineffective. Embankments built were breached in a flash. Roads have been cut off and more than 40,000 hectares of crop land has been destroyed.

What is the way out of this yearly cycle of misery? That is the big question we all need to answer.

 

Raging floodwaters fed by monsoon rains have inundated more than 2,000 villages in northeast India, sweeping away homes and leaving hundreds of thousands of people marooned Friday. At least 27 people were killed, but the toll was expected to rise.

Many of the victims so far have drowned, including five people whose boat capsized amid choppy waves.

The Indian air force was delivering food packages to people huddled on patches of dry land along with cattle and wild elephants. Rescuers were dropped by helicopter into affected areas to help the stranded, but pouring rain was complicating operations.

About a million people have had to evacuate their homes as the floods from the swollen Brahmaputra River, one of Asia's largest, swamped 2,084 villages across most of Assam state, officials said.

 

Assam's flooded capital, Gauhati, was hit by mudslides that buried three people. Many of the city's two million residents were navigating the submerged streets in rubber dinghies and small wooden boats. Most businesses were closed.

Telephone lines were knocked out and some train services were cancelled after their tracks were swamped by mud. As the floods soaked the Kaziranga game reserve east of Gauhati, motorists reported seeing a one-horned rhino fleeing along a busy highway.

"We never thought the situation would turn this grim when the monsoon-fed rivers swelled a week ago," said Nilomoni Sen Deka, an Assam government minister.

Residents of Majuli, an 800-square-kilometre island in the middle of the Brahmaputra River, watched helplessly as the swirling, grey waters swallowed 50 villages and swept away their homes.

"We are left with only the clothes we are wearing," said 60-year-old Puniram Hazarika, one of about 75,000 island residents now camping in makeshift shelters of bamboo sticks and plastic tarps on top of a mud embankment soaked by rain.

Nearby, a herd of 70 endangered Asiatic elephants, which usually avoid humans, was grouped together, Majuli island wildlife official Atul Das said. "The jumbos have not caused any harm, but we are keeping a close watch," he said.

In neighbouring Nepal, landslides also triggered by monsoon rains killed at least eight people Thursday night and left two others missing.