Tens of thousands of people have taken shelter in government-run relief camps as heavy monsoon rains batter villages in India’s north east, and one person has died in the floodwaters this week, a government relief agency said.
Assam state is on red alert and bracing for more downpours this weekend by evacuating people in low-lying areas.
Nearly 14,000 people are in 83 relief camps run by the Assam government in 20 out of the state’s 31 districts, said the disaster management agency in a statement.
Overall, nearly 500,000 people have been hit by the monsoon floods in the state.
“We are fully prepared to deal with the situation with our rescue agencies deployed at vulnerable and worst-affected locations,” said GD Tripathi, a state government official.
One of Asia’s largest rivers, the Brahmaputra, floods annually. It flows 800 miles across Assam before running through Bangladesh, which shares a 160-mile border with Assam.
Mudslides triggered by heavy rains have occurred in several parts of Assam and Sikkim states, the statement said.
In neighbouring Meghalaya state, a mudslide demolished a boundary wall of a large sports stadium, damaging several vehicles parked there, media reports said.
Floods in India and Bangladesh last year left more than a dozen dead and millions homeless.
Annual monsoon rains hit the region in June-September. The water is crucial for rain-fed crops planted during the season but often cause extensive damage.
The pattern of monsoons has been shifting since the 1950s, with longer dry spells interspersed with heavy rain, according to Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune.
Scientists say climate change is a factor behind the erratic rains that trigger unprecedented floods in Bangladesh and north-eastern India, killing dozens and making lives miserable for millions of others.
