GUWAHATI, India: Flooding and landslides have killed up to 200 people and made some 2.2 million homeless in northeast India and north Bangladesh and monsoon rains continue to lash the region, officials said recently. Officials in the Indian tea and oil rich state of Assam said the fort nigh told flooding had claimed 23 lives there and forced a staggering 1.7 million people from their homes.
They said 150 relief camps had been set up to provide shelter and food to the homeless and troops were working around the clock to rescue marooned villagers and reopen roads. Reports say, 80 villages were inundated by torrents of water from tributaries of the Brahmaputra River. Rescue workers found 20 bodies under debris in the state’s Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri districts, where many villagers had tried to flee across swollen rivers in shallow wooden boats.
Troops carrying medicine, rice and wheat on their heads waded through swirling waters to temporary camps for the homeless. Relief efforts were slow, however, because sections of road had been swept away and many highways were blocked with boulders from landslides. Flooding is an annual event in the northeast India, which is said to have the highest rainfall in the world from a rainy season that lasts until September. Roughly 100 million people live in the affected areas.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 24, 1996
