NEW DELHI: Floods triggered by torrential monsoon rains have killed at least 41 people in India’s northeast Assam state, officials said on Thursday (Jul 23), as authorities pursued rescue and relief operations.
Flood-related disasters are an annual occurrence across India during the monsoon months after the region’s long summers, with many parts of the country facing water scarcity and drought.
“We have lost 41 precious lives till date and thousands of livestock have been washed away,” Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in a social media update on the toll from monsoon rains that began in June.
“Cloudbursts upstream, coupled with localised heavy rainfall, 436 per cent above normal, have led to flooding in villages that have not seen such devastation in recent history.”
Sarma said all agencies, including India’s airforce and personnel from the State Disaster Response Force and National Disaster Response Force were “working round the clock” on relief and rescue operations in Assam.
Authorities have set up almost 150 relief camps, where close to 30,000 people are taking shelter in the state, Sarma added.
The chief minister said 900,000 people in more than 1,800 villages had been impacted by the flooding.
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