NEW DELHI: Floods triggered by torrential monsoon rains have killed at least 41 people in India's northeast Assam state, officials said Thursday (July 23), as authorities pursued rescue and relief operations.
Flood-related disasters are an annual occurrence across India during the monsoon months after the region's long summers, with many parts of the country facing water scarcity and drought.
"We have lost 41 precious lives till date and thousands of livestock has been washed away," Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in a social media update on the toll from monsoon rains that began in June.
"Cloudbursts upstream, coupled with localised heavy rainfall, 436 percent above normal, have led to flooding in villages that have not seen such devastation in recent history."
Sarma said all agencies, including India's airforce and personnel from the State Disaster Response Force and National Disaster Response Force were "working round the clock" on relief and rescue operations in Assam.
Authorities have set up almost 150 relief camps, where close to 30,000 people are taking shelter in the state, Sarma added.
The chief minister said 900,000 people in more than 1,800 villages had been impacted by the flooding.
A separate state government statement released late Wednesday said authorities were using "payload drones... to strengthen last-mile delivery of relief materials."
More than 50 small boats have been deployed in shallow-water areas where state and national disaster teams' boats cannot operate.
Indian airforce and armed forces also air-dropped relief materials to "inaccessible locations," the government statement said.
Hundreds of millions of people in India rely on the annual monsoon winds to bring rains that sustain agriculture and industry.
Deadly weather-related disasters are common during the monsoon season from June till about August but experts say climate change, coupled with urbanisation, is increasing their frequency and severity.
Last week, at least 19 people were killed in flash floods and landslides caused by monsoon rains across northeastern state of Nagaland and also in Indian-administered Kashmir. - AFP
