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Villagers cross a flooded area following incessant monsoon rainfall, at Chhaygaon in Kamrup on Wednesday.[/caption]
Guwahati, July 10 (IANS): At least three persons have died in the last 24 hours in floods and landslides in Assam and over two lakh people have been affected, officials said on Wednesday.
Two people died due to floods and one person was killed in a landslide here. The situation is expected to worsen as the meteorological department has predicted more rain in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland in the next four days.
Officials of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority on Wednesday said a total of 530 villages in Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Biswanath, Darrang, Barpeta, Nalbari Chirang, Majuli, Golaghat, Jorhat and Dibrugarh districts have been flooded, affecting some 200,000 people. Dhemaji and Lakhimpur districts are the worst affected.
Assam and other states in the region have been witnessing incessant rain since the last 48 hours. In Assam, the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been carrying out rescue and evacuation operations as well as providing relief materials to the affected people.
The water level of major rivers like the Brahmaputra, Dikhow, Dhansiri, Jia Bharali, Puthimari and Beki is above the danger mark.
The flood waters from the Brahmaputra have also entered some parts of the Kaziranga National Park, forcing the animals to migrate in search of higher ground.
“The flood waters have entered the park but the situation is under control. We are monitoring the situation closely and will implement the time card system for restricting the speed limit of vehicles on NH-27 as and when necessary,” said Kaziranga Divisional Forest Officer, Rohini Ballav Saikia.
A total of 13,276 hectares of agricultural land has been affected by the floods, officials said.
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People look on at the site of a landslide, caused by continuous monsoon rain in Guwahati on Wednesday.[/caption]
1 dead, 2 injured in landslides in Assam
A person was killed and two others were injured on Wednesday after incessant rains triggered landslides here in Assam’s capital city.
One Narayan Shah died after stones and mud from adjacent hillock caved in on his house in Gorchuk area, officials of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said.
While other members of Shah’s family managed to escape, Shah got trapped in the debris and died.
Two other persons were injured in a separate incidents of landslides in the same area, officials said.
The ASDMA had earlier issued warnings and notices to hill dwellers in and around the city to vacate their houses ahead of the monsoon season as the areas are prone to landslides.
“We have carried out massive awareness drive in landslides prone areas of the city since April. Even in Gorchuk, we asked the people here to shift to other areas. But they did not pay heed to our warnings,” officials said.
Meanwhile, the Meghalaya government has issued warnings for probable landslides and flash flood like situations. Several districts of Arunachal Pradesh were also affected as landslides caused road transportation, officials said.