At least 72 people have died in Bihar because of floods triggered by incessant rain, the state’s Additional Secretary for Disaster Management Anirudh Kumar said on Wednesday. More than 69.40 lakh people across 133 districts have been affected by the floods, reported IANS.

At least 2.48 lakh residents have been evacuated to safer places, while the state government has set up 343 relief camps for more than 90,000 flood victims.

Champaran, Sitarmahi, Darbhanga are among the districts worst hit. Troops of the National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force and the Army were carrying out rescue and relief operations in the state.

Bihar’s deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi said food could not be air-dropped in several places because of bad weather. “Relief camps have been started in different places,” Modi told ANI. “Dry rations are being distributed among people. They are also given cooked food.”

The water levels in the state’s major rivers, including Mahananda and Basmati Kamla Bagan, have now fallen below the danger level, easing the flood situation in the state, reported The Times of India. “This is primarily due to reduced rainfall activities in north Bihar and Nepal over the last 12 hours,” superintendent engineer at Water Resources department, Shanti Ranjan Sharma told the newspaper.

Assam floods

Meanwhile, the toll in the second wave of floods in Assam reached 39 after 11 more died over the past 24 hours, The Times of India reported. At least 85 people had died in the first wave of floods between April and July.

More than 1.38 lakh people have been set up at 629 relief camps across 25 of the districts that were badly affected. The Brahmaputra in Guwahati was flowing above its danger level. Several animals were moved to safer places or highlands as the Kaziranga National Park, Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary and Lawkhua Wildlife Sanctuary remained inundated in the deluge, reported PTI.

Uttar Pradesh floods

In Uttar Pradesh, the Maharajganj, Kushinagar, Gorakhpur and Siddharthnagar districts were badly affected by the downpour. Chief Minister Adityanath warned the district magistrates concerned of serious action if the relief operations were found to be inadeqaute, IANS reported, quoting an unidentified official.

The Provincial Armed Constabulary and the National Disaster Response Force teams have been deployed to the affected areas and more than 8,000 families have been shifted to safer places.

A team of doctors was also sent to the flood-hit regions to check the outbreak of diseases, PTI reported. “Orders have been issued to deploy doctors and well equipped medical teams in all the flood outposts set up by the administration in the affected areas of the state,” UP Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh said.