Pre-monsoon rain leads to floods, landslides, evacuation of residents in parts of Northeast

Monsoon is yet to arrive in Northeast officially, but several states in the region, including Mizoram, Manipur and Tripura, have experienced heavy rainfall in the last few days, leading to floods, landslides and relocation of residents. The pre-monsoon rainfall this year in the region is about 75% more than average, weather officials said.

Mizoram

Floods and landslides after heavy rainfall have disrupted normal life in Mizoram since Sunday. State government officials say reports of largescale destruction of public infrastructure and private properties are trickling in from the sparsely populated state.

However, there have been no reports of any casualties.

According to the latest reports collected by the state’s department of disaster management and department of information and public relations, floods affected as many as 10 villages in Lunglei district. More than 500 families had to be evacuated, mostly in Chakma-dominated Tlabung town on the border with Bangladesh. Landslides damaged another 22 houses in Lunglei, officials say.

Along with Lunglei, Mamit is the other worst affected district. Officials say as many as 250 houses submerged under water due to floods. Affected families had to be evacuated. Rains brought Aizawl to a halt too even as landslides blocked the main route to Lengpui airport on the outskirts of the capital. The road has since been cleared.

Manipur

Incessant rains have caused havoc in the last three days, including flooding and landslides, at many places in Manipur on Wednesday.

The state government declared holiday for all government establishments except essential services on Wednesday on account of the ‘sudden flood’, while the education department has declared holiday for all government and private educational institutions on account of the ‘grim flood situation’ for two days till Thursday.

The situation has worsened after the Imphal and Kongba river banks were breached at New Checkon and Kongba Uchekon areas in Imphal East district, officials said.

It also submerged large residential areas in Imphal East district, including VIP colonies housing ministers and top bureaucrats, besides important government offices, including All India Radio (AIR) Imphal, which temporarily suspended their radio service since morning as flood hit the office.

Residents of Thongju and Kshetrigao constituencies also faced similar fate as Kongba river breached near Kongba (Uchekon) Lai Moriba in Imphal East district.

Hundreds of localities in Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur and Thoubal districts faced flash flood after several rivers including Imphal, Nambul,Nambol,Thoubal,Maklang overflowing at many places while many of them vacated their houses after flood water entered their homes.Not only residential areas, the rain and flash floods destroyed standing crops in many places.

While the Valley is reeling under flash flood, landslide on the Imphal-Jiribam highway cut off road connectivity between the state capital and three district headquarters of Noney,Tamenglong and Jiribam.

Around 70 feet of the national highway 37 between Sinam and Laijang villages in the Imphal-Jiribam sector, about 40 km from Imphal, broke off on Wednesday morning forcing suspension of normal vehicular movement, officials said.

Tripura

Over 6,000 families were rendered homeless due to floods caused by heavy rainfall measuring 86 mm in Tripura in last 24 hours, which also left two persons dead.

A report from the state emergency operation centre claimed that 3,472 families took shelter in 64 camps set up by state government throughout the state and about 41 houses were damaged in the flood.

One man was missing and suspected to be washed away in the flood and one woman was injured due to landslide.

Flood mainly hit parts all the districts with no report of damage and homeless families from Sepahijala and West Districts.

The Met Department warned of heavy rainfall in next 24 hours in the region saying that a 275.9 mm rainfall was recorded since June 1. This year, total 979.9 mm pre-monsoon rainfall was recorded as against the normal 574.2 mm.

“The state received 75% more rainfall on an average than the normal pre-monsoon rainfall. This is an exception this year,” a Met official said. In May, over 17,000 families were rendered homeless due to flood.