Floods hit 1.79 lakh people in Assam, one dies

Guwahati: After over a month-and-a-half, fresh floods in five Assam districts have affected 1.79 lakh people besides killing one person, officials of Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said on Saturday.

The ASDMA official said that in the third wave of floods around 1.79 lakh people were affected in 155 villages on Saturday while one person died in Nagaon district.

The person drowned in the floodwater at Kampur in central Assam's Nagaon districts, where Kopili river was flowing above the danger level.

According to the officials as many as 26,000 domesticated animals were also affected in Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Morigaon, Nagaon and West Karbi Anglong districts have become marooned.

The floods, caused by incessant rain in the past few days, also inundated 6,437 hectares of crop land besides submerging the low-lying areas and many roads. The mighty Brahmaputra was flowing above the danger level at Neamatighat in Jorhat district while two of its tributaries, Jia Bharali and Kopili crossed the danger mark in northeastern Assam's Sonitpur and Nagaon districts respectively.

Like previous years, Assam until the first week of August witnessed devastating floods that killed 118 people in 22 districts, while 26 others were killed in landslides since May 22.

With a respite in monsoon rains, the situation significantly improved in the first week of August even as 57 lakh people were affected in 5,378 villages in 30 of the state's 33 districts.

A six-member Central team led by Sandeep Poundrik, Joint Secretary (Mitigation), National Disaster Management Authority, had visited Assam last month to assess the damage caused by the floods, which also killed domestic and wild animals in various sanctuaries and national parks, including the world-famous Kaziranga National Park, where 18 rhinos and 135 wild animals died due to the deluge.