Flood kills over 80 in India
At least 81 people have been reportedly killed and other 11 are missing due to the floods triggered by continuous torrential monsoon rains in north east India in the past one week.
According to state government, more than 2.2 million have been displaced when entire two villages where washed away in the Indian state of Assam as Brahmaputra River breached its banks. More than 500,000 people being sheltered in relief camps. Others are taking shelter in their relatives’ homes.
There are reports of extensive flooding in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Meghalaya.
The Indian army has been deployed to help flood victims. Emergency food packages and water and medical aid have been supplied to the flooded area. Helicopters have been pressed into action to drop food packets to those who have been marooned. Constructions workers are working round the clock to immediately restore railway services in the affected area for smoother delivery of goods and services.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh flew over the flooded areas on Monday to announce $1,800 compensation to families whose relatives died in the floods and an additional $90 million in federal help to the state government.
Doctors have set up mobile health clinics to treat flood victims and prevent the outbreak of water-borne diseases.
AFP quotes officials saying most of Assam’s Kaziranga National Park, famous for its one-horned rhinos, was submerged — with animals forced to seek higher ground.
Media have rated this as the worst monsoon flood in a decade in this part of the country.
Similarly, the death toll from landslides and flooding in Bangladesh, neighbouring country close to Assam, over the last week has risen from 108 to 123, though floodwaters were declining.