india

Updated: Jul 15, 2019 23:58 IST

Heavy rainfall and floods in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and the north-east have left as many as 45 people dead in the past few days, officials said on Monday.

Around 6.93 million people have been affected as thousands of villages have been marooned.

Heavy rainfall in Nepal, where 67 people have died so far, is said to have triggered floods in north Bihar’s 12 districts including Araria, Sitamarhi and Kishanganj districts and eastern UP’s Balrampur, Shravasti, Bahraich and Gonda districts, as the rivers originating from the neighbouring country are overflowing.

The rivers in Assam, Arunachal and Meghalaya are in full spate because of the incessant showers in the past few days in China and Bhutan, from where most of these rivers originate, officials said.

According to India Meteorological Department, these regions received around 40% of the total monsoon rainfall in the past 10 days. “Heavy to very heavy rainfall is predicted for the next five days in north-east and northern Bihar,” the IMD said in a statement.

The Central Water Commission on its website has forecast worsening of flood situation in 51 of the 350 locations across the country monitored by the central agency. The majority of the locations are in the north-east, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, which are in the red category, meaning “extreme flood”.

The Centre is assisting the states to deal with the situation by providing additional battalions of the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF). In Assam and Bihar, the armed forces are also being used to evacuate people to temporary relief camps set up by the government.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday spoke to Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal to take stock of the flood situation in the state, where 15 people have been killed and over 2.6 million have been hit.

In Meghalaya, a three-year-old boy identified as Wantai R Marak, was swept away in South Garo Hills district on Monday, the State Disaster Management Authority said in a statement. It also said that 1.24 lakh people in 11 districts have been affected by the heavy rain. Roads and public buildings were damaged by landslides caused by rain.

The authority said that even low lying areas of the capital Shillong were also flooded because of rain. “The rising waters of the Brahmaputra and the Jinjiram rivers, both flowing from Assam, submerged the low-lying areas of the district,” an official said.

In Mizoram, at least 1,000 families have been evacuated as rising waters of the Khawthlangtuipui river flooded 32 villages in Lunglei district, while rain-related incidents led to the death of five people in the state, officials said Monday.

Heavy rain has been lashing Mizoram for the past seven days, as a result of which most rivers of the state have swollen and inundated many villages, they said and added that several towns and villages remained inaccessible because of road blockades caused by landslides.

In Bihar, as many as 24 people died in different flood related incidents, which has created havoc in life of 2.6 million people living in northern part of the state bordering Nepal. However, the good news is that the quantum of discharge in the rivers from Nepal has come down over the past 24 hours, state government officials said.

According to the disaster management department (DMD) people living in 12 of the state’s 35 districts have been worst hit by the current spell of floods in rivers such as Kosi, Gandak, Kamla Balan, Adhwara and Bagmati.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar carried out an aerial survey of the inundates areas of Kosi region on Monday, while the opposition party leaders staged protests in the state assembly over the government’s failure to protect embankments and carry out adequate rescue and relief operations in the affected zones.

Angry locals in Madhubani and Arara confronted local MPs, Ram Prit Mandal and Pradip Singh respectively, accusing them of failing to ensure proper embankment before onset of monsoon. They were later rescued by officials.

The Terai region of eastern Uttar Pradesh, which falls in the foothills of Nepal, faced floods because of rising water levels in Rapti and Sharda rivers, which were flowing over the danger mark, said officials. Over 100 villages have been affected, officials said.

The Ganga was overflowing in Varanasi. Officials said the relief work was being carried out by the district officials in flood affected areas. The water levels of the Ganga, the Ram Ganga, the Yamuna, the Gomti, the Rapti, the Rohini, the Kuwano and the Choti Gandak were rising in Kanpur, Allahabad, Bijnore, Etawah, Jaunpur, Bahraich, Gorakhpur, Gonda, Basti and Deoria districts, officials said.