Assam flood-landslide toll rises to seven, IMD predicts more rains

GUWAHATI: The flood in Assam, triggered by incessant rains for the past few days, claimed the lives of two more persons.

The deaths occurred in the Cachar district of southern Assam's Barak Valley. With this, the death toll in flood and landslides went up to seven.

Five persons died in the landslides -- four in Dima Hasao and one in Lakhimpur districts. Six others were reported missing in Cachar district.

According to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority, nearly two lakh people in 652 villages across 20 districts have been affected. The authorities set up relief camps where 33,248 of the marooned were taking shelter.

Around 6,540 houses were either partially or fully damaged while cropland damaged was in over 20,587 hectares. Rivers Kopili in the Brahmaputra Valley and Barak and Kushiyara in the Barak Valley were flowing above the danger level.

Cachar, Dima Hasao, Hojai, Charaideo, Darrang, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh, Bajali, Baksa, Biswanath and Lakhimpur were the worst-hit districts.

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The flood and the landslides snapped rail links in the hill section under Dima Hasao district. As such, no train is playing to and fro Barak Valley and Tripura.

Incidents of landslides were also reported from Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya. The landslides on national highway 6 in Meghalaya disrupted road communication.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in view of the massive landslide in Meghalaya, the movement of passenger and heavy vehicles had been severely affected in Barak Valley. He said he had requested his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad K Sangma to intervene and extend help.

The Guwahati-based Regional Meteorological Centre predicted more rains.

"...moisture incursion from the Bay of Bengal is likely to continue over to Northeast due to strong lower level southerly/south-westerly winds during 17-19 May 2022. Under the influence of the above systems, widespread rainfall, accompanied with thunderstorm/lightning and heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places very likely over Arunachal, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura," the centre said in a statement.