Guwahati: As western India grapples through a massive heatwave as temperatures touch 49-degree Celsius, the North-Eastern Indian is ravaged by flash floods. The devastating floods have affected over 2 lakh people in more than 20 villages, the Assam State Disaster Management Authority said.
According to an Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) report released on Monday evening, two deaths were reported in Cachar district taking the total number of deaths in the state since Friday to five.
Nearly 200,000 people in 20 districts of the state have been affected by floods and nearly 33,000 displaced people are taking shelter in relief camps in five of the affected districts. Over 16,000 hectare of crop area has been submerged by flood waters, the report added.
Five people have been killed and six others injured in two separate landslides in Arunachal Pradesh since Sunday, according to a state government release. On Monday, a few houses were carried away at Modirijo hamlet on NH-415 between Itanagar and Naharlagun, according to sources.
Meanwhile, with heavy rain pounding the area on Monday, connectivity to Barak Valley in Assam, which has been disrupted since Saturday due to damaged roads and railway tracks in Dima Hasao district, has remained disturbed. Because these trains and trucks also transport food and other necessities to Mizoram and Tripura, there is fear about shortages in the coming days.
“We have been able to evacuate all passengers of the two trains stranded at Ditokchera and New Halflong in Dima Hasao district. It is still raining heavily there, and due to it 27 more breaches have been reported on the railway tracks apart from the 26 recorded till Sunday. Till date, we have fully cancelled 28 trains till May 24 and partially cancelled 26 trains,” informed Sabyasachi De, CPRO, Northeastern Frontier Railway (NFR).
“We are witnessing heavy rainfall because of moisture incursion from Bay of Bengal due to strong lower-level southerly/south westerly winds. In the past as well, the northeast witnesses heavy to very heavy rainfall in May,” said Sunit Das, scientist at Guwahati office of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).
Severe flood situation alert was issued for Barak River at Annapurnaghat and Badarpurghat in Cachar district, Kushiyara River at Karimganj in Karimganj district and Brahmaputra River at Nematighat in Jorhat district.
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