Floods, landslides disrupt life in Arunachal, Assam; two dead

Officials on Friday informed that at least two people have lost their lives due to landslides and floods in Arunachal Pradesh, while 33,200 people were affected in three Assam districts.

Itanagar/Guwahati:At least two people have lost their lives due to landslides and floods in Arunachal Pradesh, while 33,200 people were affected in three Assam districts, officials said on Friday.

According to the officials, thousands of people were affected due to the fresh floods caused by the incessant rains in certain regions of the two northeastern states, which had experienced devastating floods until first week of August.

In Itanagar, officials said that two people -- Bato Doye and Purna Bahadur Thakuria -- were reportedly washed away by sudden flood in the Ego river in Lepa Rada district.

"Huge loss of properties and damages to the assets including bridges were reported from four districts -- Lepa Rada, West Siang, Siang and East Siang -- due to rain-triggered flash floods in several rivers and rivulets that also created havoc in these districts in the last couple of days," officials of state disaster management authority said.

Officials said that the body of Thakuria could be retrieved, while the other is still missing. The sudden flood triggered due to blockade of the river upstream by a massive landslide.

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Chief Minister Pema Khandu while condoling the deaths asked the district administrations to assess the damages to public properties, paddy fields and other utility services in all the districts.

In Assam, after over a month, fresh floods affected 33,200 people in 108 villages in three districts -- Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Tinsukia in eastern Assam, officials of Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said on Friday.

The swollen Brahmaputra and Jia Bharali rivers are flowing above the danger level in certain places of Jorhat and Sonitpur districts.

The ASDMA officials said that floods, caused by incessant rains in the past few days, also inundated 4,340 hectares of crop land besides submerging the low lying areas.

Like previous years, Assam until the first week of August witnessed devastating floods that killed 116 people in 22 districts, while 26 others were killed in landslides since May 22.

With a respite in monsoon rains, the situation significantly improved in the first week of August even as 57 lakh people were affected in 5,378 villages in 30 of the state's 33 districts.

A six-member Central team led by Sandeep Poundrik, Joint Secretary (Mitigation), National Disaster Management Authority, had visited Assam last month to assess the damage caused by the floods, which also killed domestic and wild animals in various sanctuaries and national parks, including the world-famous Kaziranga National Park, where 18 rhinos and 135 wild animals died due to the deluge.