The flood situation in the Indian state of Assam remained grim on Thursday with nearly 5.5 million people still affected and 12 fresh deaths reported, officials said.
The latest deaths from floods and landslides took the overall body count since mid-May to 101, according to the PTI.
Four persons died in the Hojai district, three each in Barpeta and Nalbari and two in Kamrup, the state disaster management authority said. Four children were among the twelve who died on Wednesday.
The deluge has adversely affected 54,57,601 persons across 32 districts. Crops in nearly one lakh hectares of land have been damaged. Barpeta is the worst-hit district in terms of damage to agricultural land, with 27,229 hectares of land having been damaged.
There are 2,71,125 persons are in 845 relief camps across the state. Barpeta has the highest number of persons – 1,07,532 – in relief camps, as per the official figures.
The floods have also damaged 215 houses in seven districts. A total of 33,17,086 animals have been affected by the incessant rains, the state disaster management authority said.
Brahmaputra and Barak rivers along with its tributaries are in spate in most of the affected districts and vast tracts of land remained inundated in 32 of the total 36 districts in the state.
Over the past two weeks, several regions of Assam have been cut off from the rest of the state and residents are facing shortages of food and water.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma was slated to reach Silchar later in the day to review the situation related to the floods. On Wednesday, he visited flood-hit regions of the Nagaon and Morigaon districts.
Sarma said that once the flood water recedes, the state will seek to find a permanent solution to floods in the area.
The flood situation began improving in some parts of Assam on Wednesday as the rains abated, The Indian Express reported. However, the town of Silchar in the Cachar district remained submerged, with several families marooned in waterlogged homes.
Situation in neighbouring states
In recent weeks, floods have also disrupted normal life in Meghalaya, affecting over 40,000 people and killing at least 18 last week.
In the state’s South Garo Hills district, flash floods and landslides blocked roads, washed away bridges and disrupted electricity supply and mobile connectivity on Tuesday.
Owing to heavy downpours, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh among other states of the country’s northeast also witnessed waterlogging and even landslides last week. Parts of West Bengal also suffered then.