As torrential monsoon rains pound communities in India’s northeast, tens of thousands of people have sought refuge in government-run relief shelters; one person has died this week in floodwaters, according to a government relief agency.
People in low-lying areas are being evacuated as Assam state prepares for further downpours this weekend while on red alert.
According to a statement from the state disaster management agency, around 14,000 people are being housed in 83 relief camps managed by the Assam state government in 20 of the state’s 31 districts. The state’s monsoon floods have affected close to 500,000 people in total.
G.D. Tripathi, a state government official, declared that the administration was “fully prepared to deal with the situation with our rescue agencies deployed at vulnerable and worst-affected locations.”
The Brahmaputra, one of Asia’s biggest rivers, regularly floods. Before passing through Bangladesh, which shares a 260-kilometer (160-mile) border with Assam state, it flows 1,280 kilometres (800 miles) over Assam state.
According to the statement, mudslides caused by heavy rains have happened in a number of locations in the states of Assam and Sikkim.
Several parked cars were damaged after a mudslide destroyed a huge sports stadium’s border wall in the neighbouring state of Meghalaya, according to media sources.
Over a dozen people died and millions were made homeless in 2022 as a result of floods in Bangladesh and India.
The region experiences annual monsoon rainfall from June through September. Rain-fed crops grown throughout the season depend on the rains, yet they frequently sustain significant damage.
Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune, claims that since the 1950s, the monsoon pattern has changed, with extended dry intervals punctuated by intense rain. According to scientists, climate change is a contributing factor to the unpredictable rains that cause enormous floods in Bangladesh and northeastern India, which have killed scores of people and made millions of others’ lives miserable.
