From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: Flood situation in Assam continued to remain grim even as the death toll due to the current wave of deluge has mounted to nine. The water level in the main channel Brahmaputra and its tributaries still showing a rising trend, according to official sources.
The flood has rendered homeless about ten lakh people from 16 districts of the State. Three children drowned in a boat mishap at Makum in Tinsukia district of eastern Assam last night, while the NDRF rescued 42 others, an official source informed.
The worst affected districts were Baksa, Barpeta, Darrang, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh, Golaghat, Jorhat, Kamrup (rural and metro), Lakhimpur, Morigaon, Nagaon, Nalbari, Sivasagar, Sonitpur and Tinsukia.
The flood has affected 1.67 lakh people in Majuli River island in Jorhat district alone. Total 167 villages in the river island have been inundated while over 13,000 hectares of cropland has been devastated.
Entire core area of the renowned Kaziranga National Park in central Assam has been submerged by flood waters of Brahmaputra River making wildlife policing a tough task. A flood-hit rhino was killed by poachers last night taking advantage of the adversity.
Meanwhile, 21 specialized flood relief task force of the Army with engineering equipment and rescue boats are carrying out flood relief operations in Sootea Sub division of Sonitpur district. Army helicopters have also been pressed into service and large numbers of sorties were carried out distributing 2.5 tons of food packets. Army has rescued more than 6000 flood-affected people and evacuated them to relief camps established by the civil administration and NGOs, according to. Defence spokesman Lt. Col S S Phogat.
Based on the experience of recent flood relief operations Army has established medical camps in the flood-affected areas as containment of post flood health hazards and prevention of epidemic breakout is a serious concern.
Senior officers of the Army are personally supervising the relief efforts in coordination with the civil administration. Prior preparation and risk assessment of likely flood prone areas helped Army to reach affected areas at the earliest for carrying out flood relief operations. Additional specialized flood relief task force of Army equipped with mechanized boats, life jackets, medical aid and other relief material have been kept on high alert to be deployed immediately should situation further deteriorate.
The headquarters of Sikkim’s North district on Monday remained cut off from rest of the state as rescue teams struggled to access remote areas as the toll in floods rose to four in Arunachal Pradesh.
With landslides blocking roads, rescue teams comprising personnel of Indo-Tibetan Border Police, army, Border Roads Organisation and state government personnel were finding it difficult to reach remote areas where 21 ITBP and BRO personnel were killed and eight were missing in flash flood and landslides on Saturday, official sources said.
Bad weather was also hindering helicopters from making sorties in the area. But they were trying to drop essential commodities in Chungthang, blocked at 36 places by a series of landslides and where there was no electricity or drinking water, the sources said. A helicopter carrying Chief Secretary Karma Gyatso also could not land due to bad weather.
Official sources in Itanagar said the toll in Arunachal Pradesh rose to four while the water level in rivers in worst-affected Lohit district was receding with the intensity of the rain decreasing.
Chief Minister Nabam Tuki announced an ex-gratia of Rs 1.50 lakh each to the next of kin of the victims and assured the people that the state government was doing everything possible to rescue the marooned. The CM released Rs 10 lakh as immediate relief, the sources said. Nine persons marooned at the confluence of Kamlang and Lohit rivers were rescued on Sunday by an IAF chopper.
(with inputs from PTI)