Flood wrecks havoc in Bihar, Assam; more than 40 dead, lakhs affected

Patna/Guwahati: More than forty people in both Bihar and Assam have lost their lives due to severe floods in these states.

Also, lakhs have been affected due to the current deluge.

The affected districts in Assam are Lakhimpur Golaghat, Jorhat, Bongaigaon, Dhemaji, Barpeta, Goalpara, Dhubri, Darrang, Morigaon, Sonitpur, Nalbari, Sivasagar, Kokrajhar, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Biswanath, Kamrup Metropolitan, Chirang, Nagaon, Kamrup and South Kamrup.

Assam

The flood situation in Assam worsened on Thursday with five more deaths taking the toll to 21, while nearly 18 lakh people reeled under the impact.

Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) Joint Secretary Nandita Hazarika told PTI that reports of five deaths in the floods poured in, taking the toll in the current calamity to 21 so far.

Giving the break-up the ASDMA said, in Barpeta district, three persons have lost their lives at Barpeta town, Sarupeta and Barnagar.

Hazarika said one person died at Gogamukh in Dhemaji due to rising water while one more person perished at Dotma in Kokrajhar district of Lower Assam.

In the current wave of flood, nearly 18 lakh people are suffering across 3,374 villages in 22 districts, the officer said.

Bihar

On the other hand, in Bihar five more people died on Thursday taking the toll to 22 as per Disaster Management Department, while Chief Minister Nitish Kumar made an aerial survey of the five flood-hit areas.

Kumar made the survey of flood affected areas of Bhagalpur, Katihar, Purnea, Kishanganj and Araria districts.

Flooding in Bihar is mainly due to heavy rainfall in Nepal's catchment areas as a result of which water from the swollen rivers are discharged towards the neighbouring areas in Bihar.

The department officials said 17.85 lakh people residing in 1,630 villages in 49 flood-affected blocks of 10 districts have been rendered homeless.

The 10 districts which are affected by the flood are Purnea, Kishanganj, Araria, Darbhanga, Madhepura, Bahgalpur, Katihar, Saharsa, Supaul and Gopalganj.

Around one lakh hectares of land have been affected by the floods caused due to rise in the water levels of Mahananda, Bakhra, Kankai, Parmar and Kosi rivers of the state.

Around 3.88 lakh people have been displaced while 1.36 lakh people have taken shelter in the 357 relief camps run by the government.

Crops, spread over 50,000 hectares of land, valued at Rs 2.04 crore have been damaged by the flood.

Meanwhile, NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) said its nine teams have been pressed into service to rescue people in most sensitive flood areas.

NDRF teams are engaged in the most flood-affected Araria, Purnea and Kishanganj districts to carry out rescue work. An NDRF team has been sent to West Champaran and Gopalganj districts.

Besides, SDRF teams have also been deployed in the flood affected districts especially in the three districts of Araria, Purnea and Kishanganj.

15,000 packets of dry food have been sent to Purnea from Muzaffarpur, Madhubani, Saharsa, Madhepura for distribution among the flood affected people.

The dry food packet includes - 500 gm of sattu, 2 kg of chura (bitten rice), 250 gm sugar, small salt packet, candle, match, box, a torch, powder milk among others. 

(With PTI inputs)