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Indian floods displace 25 000
04/06/2006 19:29 - (SA)
Guwahati - Nine people died from lightning strikes in India as the death toll from an early monsoon hit 118 and 25 000 people were displaced by flooding, officials said on Sunday.
Authorities in northeastern Assam state said floodwaters from the Brahmaputra river inundated at least 70 villages and cut road and rail links.
"At least 25 000 people were forced to take shelter in makeshift arrangements with floodwaters submerging villages," said the statement.
No casualties were reported from the flooding in Assam, but nine new deaths were reported from the eastern state of Orissa and four more nationwide after monsoon rains tore into the subcontinent earlier than expected.
At least 41 people have died in the western state of Maharashtra, which has been pounded by heavy rains since mid-week, bringing back memories of floods in July 2005 which killed hundreds of people in the state capital, Mumbai.
The other deaths - caused mainly by lightning strikes, drownings and house collapses in heavy storms - were in Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat, Jharkhand and West Bengal states, according to official reports.
Flowing above danger level
The monsoon hit India's Andaman archipelago on May 18, about a week earlier than usual.
According to Assam's central water commission, the Brahmaputra was flowing above the danger level on Sunday in at least six places with the river maintaining a rising trend.
The area worst hit by the first wave of flooding that began on Thursday was Assam's eastern district of Dhemaji.
State officials said at least 22 villages in the district had been submerged and 640ha of agricultural fields had been "devastated."
Road and rail links in parts of Assam have also been hit by the floods.
"In many places in southern Assam, floodwaters have caused breaches in roads, disrupting surface transport," said government spokesperson C Nath.
Rhinos are safe
A railway official said a breach in a canal washed away a major section of a rail track between the towns of Rangia and Rangapara in northern Assam.
Eastern Assam's Kaziranga National Park, home to the world's largest concentration of endangered one-horned rhinos, was partially flooded.
"The animals are still safe despite floodwaters submerging a section of the park," said ranger D D Boro.
- AFP
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