Assam faces crisis as flood situation turns critical

Guwahati, Sept 26: The flood situation in

has turned critical. With an overflowing Brahmaputra, more than half of 27 districts in the northeastern state of India are under flood waters.

The current flood in Assam has killed a total of 18 people and more than 17 lakh affected, said officials, involved in relief and rescue measures in the affected areas. However, several people are reported to be missing.

Most of Upper and Central Assam have come under the spell of flood waters. Government report informs that a total of 1,916 villages are reeling under floods. A total of 69 revenue circles in the districts of Baksa, Barpeta, Darrang, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh, Golaghat, Jorhat, Kamrup, Kamrup Metro, Lakhimpur, Morigaon, Nagaon, Nalbari, Sivsagar, Sonitpur and Tinsukia are bearing the brunt of floods.

Lakhs of people have taken shelter in relief camps to save themselves from vagaries of floods.

Army and Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel are involved in rescue and rehabilitation processes in the state. Food packets were air dropped in Majuli, Sootea and Sadiya, some of the worst hit flood areas in Assam. Majuli, the river island in Upper Assam's Jorhat district is also the abode of the Assamese neo-Vaisnavite culture.

Sources informed that rescue teams of the Army and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) rescued thousands of marooned people in the affected districts and evacuated them to safer places.

The Brahmaputra, Burhidehing, Subansiri, Dhansiri and the Jia Bharali rivers are flowing above the danger levels at many places.

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has directed the administration to use helicopters and mechanised boats to step up rescue and relief operations in the flood-hit state.

Even Assam's main city Guwahati is facing flood threats as many areas of Pandu and Adabari areas are submerged.

The wildlife heritage of the state is also under flood spell.

"Over 80 per cent of the Kaziranga National Park remained under flood water and over 10 animals died in the park due to floods. Poachers also took advantage of the floods and killed a one-horned rhino and managed to decamp with the horn," said an official.

OneIndia News