500,000 flee floods, landslides in India, 11 dead
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GUWAHATI (India) • More than 500,000 people have fled their homes in India's north-eastern state of Assam to escape heavy floods triggered by pre-monsoon rains that drowned seven, the authorities said yesterday, as they warned the situation could worsen.
One of the world's largest rivers, the Brahmaputra which flows into India and neighbouring Bangladesh from Tibet, burst its banks in Assam over the last three days, inundating more than 1,500 villages.
Torrential rains lashed most of the rugged state, and the downpour continued yesterday, with more forecast over the next two days.
"More than 500,000 people have been affected, with the flood situation turning critical by the hour," Assam's water resources minister Pijush Hazarika told Reuters, adding that the seven drowned in separate incidents during the last three days.
Four of the victims were killed when their house was buried in a remote village in Dima Hasao district, where landslides undermined railway lines in several areas, making it difficult for the authorities to send relief material.
One train was pushed off the tracks by muddy debris from surrounding hills.
Soldiers of the Indian army retrieved more than 2,000 people trapped in the district of Hojai in a rescue effort that is continuing, the state's Health Minister Keshab Mahanta said.
Water levels in the Brahmaputra were expected to rise further, the national authorities said. Forecasters warned of more deluges.
"The situation remains extremely grave in the worst-hit Dima Hasao district, with both rail and road links snapped due to flooding and landslides," said Assam's Revenue Minister Jogen Mohan, who is overseeing relief efforts there.
Cities elsewhere in India, notably the capital, New Delhi, are broiling in a heat wave.
Experts say extreme weather around the world is being driven by climate change, made worse in South Asia by damming, deforestation and over-the-top development projects.
The Indian Meteorological Department has warned of extreme weather conditions, with a heatwave in northern parts of the country recently triggering water shortages and power cuts.
The department simultaneously warned of heavy rainfall in several other areas, including Assam and other northeastern states, and Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala in the south.
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE