Extreme levels of flood danger were announced in the northeast on Monday, with mass casualties and devastation in Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, as the central government promised to provide assistance to 131 people reported so far. Union Home Minister Amit Shah said a delegation of ministers would visit flood-affected areas in Assam and Meghalaya to assess the damage. After speaking to the Prime Ministers, Himanta Biswa Sarma and Conrad Sangma, said that the center was standing firm for the people of the region.
According to a report released by the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), the state recorded 11 deaths on Monday in eight of the 32 districts affected by the floods. Seven people, including two children, were reported missing in five other districts. The dead included two police officers who drowned in the Nagaon region drowning in floodwaters in Kampala on Sunday as they tried to help people affected by the floods. According to the ASDMA, the amount of rainfall received this year in the months of May and June is higher than the average of previous years. “The weather is very bad this season and it has put a lot of pressure on rescue and relief efforts and on the affected people,” said GD Tripathi, CEO, ASDMA.
According to data released by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) on June 16, Meghalaya recorded more than 172% rainfall than usual last week; Assam saw 100% rainfall while Arunachal Pradesh recorded 28% more rainfall than usual. The Guwahati office of the Indian Department of Environmental Affairs (IMD) issued a new rain warning in all seven districts in the region on Monday. According to the report, thunderstorms and heavy rain could occur in the areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur and Tripura until Friday.
More than 4.7 million people are currently affected by the floods across Assam. A total of 231,819 people who have fled their homes fleeing floods are currently living in 1,425 relief camps, according to the government. Floodwaters have reached national parks and wildlife sanctuaries and by Monday morning, 18% of the entire area of Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve (KNPTR) was submerged. In the neighboring village of Meghalaya, although no deaths were reported on Monday, landslides were reported in several areas in West Khasi Hills and East Jaintia Hills. The tunnel on National Highway 6, which was closed on Sunday due to landslides, remained closed, disrupting traffic.
In Arunachal Pradesh, a 16-year-old boy died in a landslide last Sunday, which killed at least three people from a landslide in April. Three hotel workers were reported missing on Sunday due to a landslide in West Kameng district. In Manipur, several villages in the Jiribam and Perzawl districts were submerged by rising water levels in the Barak River due to incessant rainfall over the past few days.
In Assam, according to a report released by the Central Water Commission (CWC), the Beki, Pagladiya, Puthimari, Kopili and Brahmaputra rivers flowed above the level of danger in several areas. Assam Prime Minister Himanta BiswaSarma held a review meeting with deputy commissioners of all regions and issued directives to provide immediate relief to those affected by the floods and not to await official agreements and sanctions. “District officials should ensure that relief measures, including food and drinking water, are provided promptly to those affected by the relief efforts instead of focusing on the calculation and evaluation. The doctor should also be examined in the camps, ”said Sarma.
Earlier in the day, Sarma said an Indian Air Force (IAF) plane on Tuesday would carry 100,000 liters of petrol and diesel to Silchar in the Barak Valley, where road connections were disrupted due to heavy rains and landslides. Sarma said in addition to the National Disaster Response Force and SDRF personnel, several columns of Indian troops have also been involved in rescue and relief efforts across the country.
Meanwhile, the Congress of Opposition in Assam demands that the floods in Assam be declared a national catastrophe. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, opposition leader Debabrata Saikia demanded Rs. 20,000 crore as a special relief. In Meghalaya, 40 lives have been lost so far since April 1, with 633,924 people from 918 villages affected. Prime Minister Conrad Sangma said the national government had written to the Union’s Interior Ministry, seeking financial assistance of R300 crore from the Center to deal with losses caused by floods and landslides. An official in Tripura said one person was injured, and more than 100 houses in various parts of the state were damaged by floods on Monday. Currently, 602 families live in 24 relief camps in the province. In Mizoram, the government has ordered that schools be closed until Tuesday due to heavy rains.According to experts, flood damage is increasing every year due to the weather. “The flood-related disasters in Assam have been steadily rising year after year, and since 2017, there has been an increase in floods and landslides. Climate change is one of the factors, coupled with infrastructure interventions that have led to this situation. Each flood cycle affects many in Assam and by the time they are able to recover slightly the next flood cycle occurs. These conditions will intensify in the coming years in Assam and the northeast, ”said Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman, an independent water expert based in Guwahati
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