Guwahati/New Delhi: Death toll in the devastating Assam floods has crossed 100 so far with 16 fresh casualties in the past 48 hours. According to estimates, over 85% of the Kaziranga National Park is submerged under water and 22 lakh lives have been thrown out of gear in the 21 districts that have been badly hit with the incessant rainfall and landslides.
Railway connectivity in the North East region is completely cut off.
The annual floods hit the Northeastern state on August 10 this year and the situation is not likely to improve over the next few days. Before this, floods in June and July killed another 84 people across the state.
Kokrajhar, Dhubri and Bongaigaon in western Assam and Kaliabor, Dhemaji and Dibrugarh in Upper Assam are the worst hit districts. The Indian Army has been deputed in these areas to rescue thousands who are stranded in the rising waters.
According to data available with the Assam government, over two lakh people are living in 490 relief camps across the state. This comes even as seven rivers including Brahmaputra, Subansiri, Beki and others are still flowing above the danger mark.
The flood situation in western Assam is likely to worsen further even as the meteorological department forecasts very heavy rainfall in the neighbouring Meghalaya and other parts of the state till Wednesday. The Kokrajhar belt which is already inundated in water flowing down from Bhutan, will also have to bear the brunt of more water flowing in from Meghalaya.
Brahmaputra wreaked havoc in Koliabor sub-division in Nagaon district when the key Hatimura embankment was breached early on Sunday morning. It forced people to abandon their houses in the middle of the night.
With portions of National Highway 37, which passes through Koliabor and leads to Kaziranga, submerged, it stopped all vehicular communication between Upper and Lower Assam.
The rail link between Northeast and rest of the country snapped after railway tracks were hit at 12 different locations. While seven of them have been repaired, rest continue to remain inundated.
Railways spokesperson, Pranav Jyoti Sharma said the situation has worsened. “With railway tracks near Dalkhola, Barsoi, Sudhani stations submerged and the main line connecting the Northeast with the rest of the country blocked, the danger level further went up.”
Sharma added, “As a result, a number of trains had to be stopped at various stations and some other trains had to be cancelled or rescheduled/short-terminated. Some of the trains had to be brought back to their originating stations or other convenient stations.”
Assam has always been vulnerable to floods. With Brahmaputra valley being is one of the most hazard-prone regions in the country, more than 40% of the land in the state is susceptible to flood damages.
In the last 50 years, Assam has already lost 7% of its land to soil erosion in the state's 17 riverine districts. Despite knowing that Brahmaputra is chipping away at the land, response by successive governments, has been tardy at best. Over Rs 30,000 crore has been spent on making embankments, but most of it turns out to be either insufficient or at times even counterproductive.
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