World | India
Monsoon misery spreads to more states
Heavy rains and rising floodwaters forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes in northeastern India and sent elephants and rhinos fleeing, as monsoon misery spread in South Asia.
- Agencies
- Published: 23:15 September 2, 2008
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Rescue efforts tardy - survivors
Rescue efforts tardy - survivors
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India steps up flood relief operation
India steps up relief operation for thousands of flood victims
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Doctors rushed to flood-hit areas
Doctors rushed to flood-hit areas
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Indian relief workers scramble to provide aid
Hungry villagers riot, swim to safety as India rushes to provide aid
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Officials struggling to help flood victims
Officials struggling to help thousands affected by floods in eastern India
Guwahati: Heavy rains and rising floodwaters forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes in northeastern India and sent elephants and rhinos fleeing, as monsoon misery spread in South Asia.
In the eastern Indian state of Bihar, desperate flood victims attacked a warehouse and looted food supplies, while in neighbouring Bangladesh major rivers rose to danger levels and fresh parts of the country were submerged.
In the northeastern state of Assam, heavy rains caused water levels to rise on Tuesday, affecting more than a million people and disrupting road networks for the second consecutive day.
Animals fled to higher ground in Kaziranga National Park after the Brahmaputra burst its banks and flooded most of the park, home to more than half of the world's population of one-horned rhinoceros.
At least two rhino calves were drowned and a herd of 100 elephants were swept away by floodwaters, forest officials said. "We are now worried the poachers will take advantage and kill rhinos and elephants as they are moving out of the protected areas to safer ground," said chief warden S.N. Buragohain.
In Bihar, the floods have already displaced about three million people and killed at least 90.
Stick-wielding villagers
Hundreds of stick-wielding villagers ransacked a food warehouse in Madhepura district and looted food packets while police guarding the warehouse ran for cover. Government vehicles carrying food were also looted.
"We cannot stop incidents despite our best efforts," Bijendra Prasad Yadav, a state relief official, said. "These are very common during flood time."
Many villagers in impoverished Bihar have been marooned on rooftops for days with nothing to eat, while some have taken to eating plants and leaves to survive.
The Kosi river burst a dam in Nepal late last month flooding hundreds of villages across the state and destroying 100,000 hectares of farmlands.
Although floodwaters are rising in Assam and Bangaldesh, water levels in Bihar are receding and the government aims to evacuate all stranded villagers within the next three days.
Aid agencies have criticised the government's handling of the crisis saying they should have done more to anticipate the disaster and plan relief operations since the region is hit by monsoon flooding every year.
In Bihar, more than 560,000 people have been evacuated so far, and some 200,000 have been moved to government relief camps, officials said.
Meanwhile, aid workers warned hundreds of thousands of flood victims in makeshift camps in India and Nepal face major disease outbreaks if help fails to reach them quickly.
They said several camps in India's northern Bihar state and across the border in Nepal, areas devastated when a monsoon-swollen river which burst its banks and changed course, were already reporting cases of diarrhoea and other crippling illnesses.
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