Assam floods: Toll rises to 82, over 2 lakh persons in relief camps
More than 47 lakh residents have been adversely affected by the deluge.
The toll due to floods in Assam rose to 82 on Monday after eleven more residents died in the state, PTI reported.
Three residents died in the Darrang district while two died in the Nagaon district, the state disaster management authority said. One person each died in the districts of Cachar, Dibrugarh, Hailakandi, Hojai, Kamrup and Lakhimpur.
Seven persons, including two children, are currently missing.
The floods have affected 32 districts and 47,72,140 residents of Assam. Crops on over 1,13,485.37 hectares of land have been damaged.
As many as 2,31,819 persons are in 810 relief camps across the state. On Tuesday, the National Disaster Response Force was sent to Cachar in Barak Valley of Assam for rescue operations following heavy rainfall, PTI reported.
The disaster management authority in its bulletin said 33,84,326 animals have been affected, while 5,232 have been swept away in the floods.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma visited a relief camp on Tuesday and said that his government will soon launch a portal for residents to register their livestock loss and other damages caused by the floods.
Incessant rains have hit several parts of Assam in the last two weeks. According to the India Meteorological Department, the state has already recorded 109% excessive rainfall this month – 528.5 millimetres of actual rainfall until June 19 against the normal 252.8 millimetres for June.
Heavy rains have also caused casualties in other northeastern states.
On Sunday, a 16-year-old boy died in a landslide in Arunachal Pradesh, the Hindustan Times reported. With this, nine residents have died in the state due to rain-related incidents since April.
In Meghalaya, landslides were reported from the West Khasi Hills and East Jaintia Hills districts. Floods and landslides have claimed 40 lives in the state since April.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday spoke to Sarma and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma to discuss the adverse impact of heavy rains.
“Modi government stands firmly with the people of Assam and Meghalaya in this hour of need,” Shah said on Twitter. “An Inter-Ministerial Central Team [IMCT] will visit the flood-affected areas of Assam and Meghalaya to assess the damages.”
The home minister said that such a team had visited the two states between May 26 and May 29 as well.
Heavy rains have battered Meghalaya in the past two weeks. On June 17, Cherrapunji in the East Khasi Hills district received 908.4 millimetres of rain. This is the highest rainfall in 24 hours that the town received in June since 1998, according to the India Meteorological Department.
Cherrapunji is considered to be one of the wettest places in the world. The town has received over 800 millimetres of rain in June on nine occasions since the weather department began maintaining records.