THE flood situation remained grim in parts of north-east and Bihar as the death toll mounted to 44 on Monday, with nearly 70 lakh people affected, even as north India witnessed widespread rainfall. The national capital’s long wait for monsoon rains also ended Monday as it received 28.8 mm precipitation, the maximum in July this year, and more rains are expected over the next two to three days. In Assam, the deluge spread to 30 of the State’s 33 districts, affecting nearly 43 lakh people and claiming 15 lives, besides submerging rhino habitats the Kaziranga National Park, Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary and the Manas National Park.

 

 

The water level of the Brahmaputra rose above the danger level across the State. The town of Bokakhat has been cut off from the rest of entire upper Assam due to the flood waters, the release said. The death toll in the Bihar floods mounted to 24, with 25.66 lakh people reeling from the deluge in 12 districts of the state following incessant rains in neighbouring country Nepal. Five more children drowned in two separate incidents in East Champaran district, but a senior official of the State Disaster Management Department said that they were not counted among the flood casualties. With five rivers in spate, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar undertook his second aerial survey of the flood-hit areas during the day.

 

 

At least 1,000 families had to be evacuated in Lunglei district of Mizoram as raging waters of the Khawthlangtuipui river flooded 32 villages, while rain-related incidents led to the death of five people in the State, officials said. At least 32 villages in the Tlabung area of south Mizoram’s Lunglei district were flooded by the river Khawthlangtuipui. Around 700 homes were submerged in the district and 800 families had to be shifted to safer places, the officials said. Several towns and villages remained inaccessible due to road blockades caused by landslides, while power supply and telecommunication services were also severely disrupted across the State, the officials said. Incessant rains across Meghalaya for the last seven days and rising waters of two rivers flooded the plains of West Garo Hills district, affecting at least 1.14 lakh people.

 

 

A total of 57,700 people, residents of 50 villages in Demdema block and over 66,400, residents of 104 villages in Selsella block have been affected due to the floods, they said. Rising waters of the Brahmaputra and the Jinjiram rivers, both flowing from Assam, submerged the low-lying areas of the district, an official said. Meanwhile, the low-lying areas of the State’s capital city Shillong were also flooded. However, the flood situation in Tripura showed signs of improvement as Khowai and Haora rivers started receding, officials said. Many parts of Himachal Pradesh have received light to moderate showers since Sunday. Widespread rains lashed most of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh on Monday, bringing down the maximum temperatures in the region up to five notches below the normal.

 

 

Rain water inundated several low-lying areas in the twin states of Punjab and Haryana and their joint capital Chandigarh As many as 119 teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed in flood-hit areas of the country, including Assam and Bihar, and a 24X7 control room has been set up in Delhi to closely monitor the regions, an official statement said. The teams, each comprising around 45 personnel, are equipped with boats, divers and other flood rescue-related equipment, it said.