Marginal improvement in flood situation in Assam

The flood situation in Assam improved on Wednesday with the number of those affected in the deluge dropping to nearly 17 lakh in 21 districts, though the toll increased to 107 with three more deaths reported, an official bulletin said.

Till Tuesday, the number of those affected was 19.81 lakh in 21 districts.

According to the daily flood report of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), one person each drowned in Barpeta, Kokrajhar and Kamrup districts.

A total 133 people have lost their lives in the deluge and landslides triggered by it in the state. Twenty-six people have died due to landslides and 107 due to flood-related incidents.

The ASDMA said over 16.55 lakh people are hit due to floods in Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Biswanath, Darrang, Baksa, Barpeta, Chirang, Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar, Dhubri, South Salmara, Goalpara, Kamrup, Kamrup Metropolitan, Morigaon, Nagaon, Golaghat, Jorhat, Majuli, Sivasagar and Dibrugarh districts.

Goalpara is the worst hit district with over 4.19 lakh people hit, followed by Morigaon with more than 2.63 lakh and South Salmara with around 2.50 lakh, it said.

The ASDMA said that at present, 1,536 villages are under water and 92,899.95 hectares of crop area have been devastated in the state.

The State Disaster Response Force, district administrations and locals have rescued 36 people across the state since Tuesday, it added.

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal visited the erosion and flood-hit areas of Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts and interacted with senior officers of the Water Resources Department to take stock of measures taken to mitigate the crisis.

Sonowal told newsmen that along with the flood, soil erosion has posed a big challenge, and he has directed the Water Resources Department to initiate remedial steps to assist people.

The chief minister said he had been visiting several places of the state to take stock of the problems faced by the people.

The ASDMA said the authorities are running 321 relief camps and distribution centres across 14 districts where 37,012 people are taking shelter currently.

The authorities have distributed 720.47 quintals of rice, dal and salt and 2,619.66 litres of mustard oil, along with other relief materials such as tarpaulin, match boxes, biscuits, soap, drinking water, mask and wheat bran.

Inmates of several relief camps have, however, complained of negligence by the authority and claimed that they had received foodgrains only once on their arrival about a week ago.

The ASDMA said the Brahmaputra river is flowing above the danger mark in Dhubri town, besides at Nimatighat in Jorhat and Tezpur in Sonitpur district.

Its tributaries Dhansiri at Numaligarh in Golaghat, Jia Bharali at NT Road Crossing in Sonitpur and Kopili at Dharamtul in Nagaon are also flowing above their danger levels.

Embankments, roads, bridges, culverts and many other infrastructure have been damaged at various places in Bongaigaon, Golaghat, Chirang, Barpeta, Lakhimpur and Udalguri districts, while massive erosion have been witnessed at different places of Baksa, Lakhimpur and Udalguri districts, the ASDMA bulletin said.

It said that a total of 29 camps out of 223 at Kaziranga National Park, five out of 40 camps at the Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park, 15 out of 25 camps at the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary and one out of 10 camps at the Tinsukia Wildlife Division have been affected by the deluge.

The deluge has so far claimed the lives of 142 different animals, while 165 others were rescued in the Kaziranga National Park, the bulletin said, quoting divisional forest officer of the Eastern Assam Wildlife Division.

The flood has also affected 18,17,919 domestic animals and poultry across the state during the last 24 hours, it added.