New Delhi: From Guwahati in the north-east to Gurgaon near its capital, Indian authorities on Saturday tried to rescue thousands of people stranded in flooded cities and villages after a week of heavy rain killed at least 52 people and uprooted tens of thousands from their homes across the country.
Twenty-six deaths have been reported in Assam, where incessant downpours have damaged roads and snapped telephone cables in several districts, a government statement said. Twenty-six deaths also have been reported in Bihar due to drowning and house collapses in 10 districts bordering Nepal.
The Bihar state government was running more than 350 relief camps providing food and other necessities to the flood victims. The federal government-run National Disaster Response Force was helping with relief efforts.
More than 3.6 million people were affected by the floods across the country, while thousands of people were sheltering in makeshift camps set up along highways and on higher ground in flood-ravaged states.
Vast tracts of Assam’s Kaziranga National Park, home to the rare one-horned rhino, and another wildlife reserve were under water, the state government said in a statement. Forest officials found the remains of six rhinos drowned by floodwaters in Kaziranga, the statement said. Another rhino was killed in another national reserve in the state.
The Brahmaputra River and its tributaries were overflowing their banks in 18 of Assam’s districts, washing away roads and highways and toppling power pylons. Floodwaters entered homes in at least 14 districts, leading to house collapses.
Scores of people die every year from flooding and landslides during the monsoon rains in India and neighbouring countries of Nepal and Bangladesh. In Nepal, floods and landslides have killed more than 90 people at a time when millions of Nepalis are still living in makeshift huts after a devastating earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people in 2015.