GUWAHATI, Sept 21 NNN: The Assam flood has claimed 6 lives and affected 13 districts with lakhs of people finding hardship.
Since Monday, Assam has been experiencing one of the worst floods in recent time that have affected 13 districts and claimed so far six lives.
Officials estimation regarding the figure of affected people has put at 6 lakh mark. Nearly one thousand villages have also been either submerged or affected in one way or the other due to the present flood.
Heavy downpour in the hilly neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh and Bhutan in the past one week has been the cause for the present calamity in the state.
According to disaster management officials, river Brahmaputra and its tributaries originating from Bhutan and northern Arunachal Pradesh are flowing above the danger marks. “The situation is grim and likely to worsen in the next few days if rain continues,” predicted Assam Water Resources minister Rajib Lochan Pegu.
Adding that an alert has been sounded in seven districts other than the 13 flood-affected ones, Pegu said only a handful of villages in Dhemaji district have escaped the water surge. Such has been the flood fury that ferry services have been suspended in eastern Assam.
Majuli island has been the worst hit with 125 villages flooded. Large swathes of two national parks – Dibru-Saikhowa in Tinsukia district and Kaziranga in Golaghat district – have also gone under water. Kaziranga has suffered more with 14 forest guard camps inundated.
Officials said more than 600,000 people have been affected across 950 villages in the floods, the third wave this year. Six people drowned in flash floods, two of them after a boat capsized Thursday evening.
National Disaster Response Force and State Disaster Response Force personnel have been deployed to rescue marooned people in six worst affected districts.
In Guwahati and its vicinity, people living near the Brahmaputra are gripped with panic as erosion continues along the river embankment.
The authorities are helping the people residing along the river sides from vacating from their dwellings. The water level rises steadily and the threat on the people by the river is looming large.
In Guwahati, places like Durgabari, Basbari, East Chowkidingee, Guardpara, Jibon Phukan Nagar, Lachitnagar, Gandhinagar, Naliapool, Gangapara, Graham Bazar, Amollapatty, Guardpara, Mollukabasa, Kodomoni, Ambari, Dibrujan and Seujpur have been flooded since yesterday.
Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/six-dead-6-lakhs-affected-950-villages-flooded-in-assam/
