Large parts of the coastal Orissa state were inundated after authorities were forced to open dozens of sluice gates of a dam on the Mahanadi river following heavy rain in the catchment area.

'At least 200,000 people were evacuated from their homes and moved to safer places,' Mr G.V. Venugopala Sarma, a revenue official, told Reuters. He said more people were being moved.

TV stations showed people fleeing the floods with whatever they could carry. Some took shelter on roads and inside school buildings.

Most of the deaths were caused by drowning.

The river had breached its banks in several places and floodwaters had swept away highways in some areas.

Monsoon rains and flooded rivers have brought huge devastation across South Asia this year, killing more than 1100 people, mostly in India.

The Kosi river, which burst a dam in Nepal, has heaped massive suffering on millions of people in downstream Bihar state in India. Water levels were now receding there.

But millions were now living on embankments, roads and in overcrowded camps in filthy conditions, exposing them to infections and water-borne diseases, aid agencies say.

In Orissa, the government was using helicopters to drop food and water packets.

Authorities warned of more floods in the state's coastal belt once more water is released from the Hirakud dam on the Mahanadi.

The floods in Bihar, the worst there in 50 years, destroyed 100,000 ha (250,000 acres) of farmlands. Rice crop in Orissa had also been damaged.

The monsoon usually hits India on Jun 1 and retreats in Sept, and is key to irrigating some 60 per cent of farmland. But it leaves in its wake massive destruction, killing hundreds of people, destroying homes, crops, roads and bridges every year. -- REUTERS