Five more people lost their lives as the water level in the flood-affected districts of Assam remained more or less unchanged during the last 24 hours.

With Thursday’s drowning of the five across four districts, the death toll in the two waves of floods since May 22 has reached 71. Landslides across the State during this period claimed 26 more lives.

Landslides and floods have also killed at least 12 people in Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya.

Officials of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said large swathes of the State did not experience rainfall but water from the hills in adjoining States saw the number of flood-affected districts rise to 27.

“From 35.74 lakh, the number of affected people has increased to 39.8 lakh. The number of people who took shelter in relief camps also increased from 36,320 to 49,313 overnight,” an ASDMA spokesperson said.

The flood-displaced people have taken refuge in 303 relief camps across 19 districts.

The area of affected farmlands has also increased to 1.31 lakh hectares.

Western Assam’s Dhubri district was the worst-affected for the second consecutive day with 8.72 lakh people living in makeshift camps of their own arrangement. Barpeta had 4.78 lakh affected people at the last count, followed by Goalpara (4.28 lakh), Morigaon (4.25 lakh) and Lakhimpur (3 lakh).

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Thursday took a speedboat trip in the submerged areas of Kaziranga National Park (KNP) and took stock of condition of the marooned animals and measures taken by the park authorities to ensure their protection.

He also went to the submerged anti-poaching forest camps and interacted with the forest guards. “Their surveillance of the park, braving all odds, to ensure the protection of the marooned animals has to be appreciated,” he said.

‘90% of park flooded’

Officials said the water level in the 1,055 sq km KNP remained stagnant after falling a day ago. “About 90% of the park remains submerged with 99 of the 223 anti-poaching camps inundated,” the park’s director P. Sivakumar said.

However, two one-horned rhinos drowned during the last 24 hours. The carcasses of three were found earlier, taking the rhino death count in the park to five. Another rhino died in Pobitora Sanctuary near Guwahati.