Agartala/Aizawl/Silchar, November 7 : At least one person was killed and crops were damaged in incessant rains caused by a deep depression in the Bay of Bengal in Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur and southern Assam over te past three days, officials said on Monday.
The normal life has been thrown out of gear in the northeastern states, they added.
A 21-year-old youth, Biswajit Roy, died while crossing a flooded canal in Agartala on Sunday night. His body was recovered late on Sunday night.
An official of Tripura's Disaster Control Centre said that several hundred families in different parts of Tripura took shelter in relief camps, as their homes and villages were flooded following incessant rains.
"Many houses were also washed away in western Tripura. Low-lying areas were inundated. District Magistrate Milind Ramteke and Additional District Magistrate Kuntal Das have visited the affected areas and met the affected people," Sadar Sub-Divisional Magistrate Samit Roy Chowdhury told IANS. Seasonal crops in Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur and southern Assam were the worst affected by the post-monsoon rain.
"Seasonal crops like potato, cauliflower, cabbage and various other vegetables were badly damaged due to the rains in Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur and southern Assam," agricultural expert Chandan Debbarma told IANS.
In Aizawl, a Mizoram Disaster Control Centre official said that the rains since Friday damaged many houses built in the hilly terrain.
He said as vehicular movement was restricted by landslides and uprooted trees, normal life was severely affected in different parts of eastern and western Mizoram.
Meteorological Department officials in Agartala, Aizawl and Silchar (southern Assam's main commercial city) said that the situation is likely to improve from Monday night. "There would be no heavy rains in the next couple of days. Light or moderate rains are likely to occur in some places of Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur and southern Assam," Meteorological Department Director in Agartala Dilip Saha told IANS.
He said that the deep depression, generated in the Bay of Bengal four days back, has now lost its strength and it currently exists in Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, southern Assam and adjoining northeastern Bangladesh.
Refuting the reports in a section of media, Saha said that no cyclone has occurred in the past one week in the region.
"The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has never announced a cyclone in Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur or southern Assam and other areas. To declare a cyclone, its wind speed must be 65 km per hour, besides fulfilling other criteria. The wind speed of the current deep depression did not cross 55 km per hour," the official said.
He added that a high-level IMD committee in Delhi after considering various aspects declares a phenomenon as a cyclone.
